Bad Things Happen for a Reason I Hope
by nerf-battles
Summary: The Sohmas have an unexpected guest. Can she melt Hatori's frozen heart? Or can he not move on from the pain in his past? OCXHatori
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One: Mistakes**

Inora shuddered in her sleeping bag. It was only early November but she had underestimated how cold it got in Japan. She had tried living in a motel but she had only made it a week before she realized exactly how much of a money drain that was. Anyway from the way it was looking she would want to save her money and stay there in a few weeks when it seriously got cold. 'Well this isn't how it was supposed to go' she thought. She was a little dizzy but she tried to remember what happened. 'Always learn from your mistakes because you can't afford to make them again.'

-Flashback-

She stepped off the plane breathing in the fresh air after the long flight. She was grinning from ear to ear. She could hardly contain her excitement, she practically ran through the terminal to find the family that was going to take her in. she only brought one suitcase; the whole point of this program was to throw yourself into the culture you chose. She was certainly going to do that. She could have learned enough Japanese in a month to get by with very light and proper conversation. She had a gift for languages, but she had decided she wanted more of a challenge. She wanted to learn as she went. When she had told her uncle about her plan he laughed "your not gonna learn any Japanese before you go? You won't survive there a month!"

She smiled thinking of him; he always pushed her to try new things. He knew how to hit her with her competitive spirit. "Don't you worry," she had said. "I'm gonna make it the whole year AND I'll be fluent in Japanese when I get back! So HA!" She smiled again. Anyway it didn't matter because the family she was staying with knew English. She came to the end of a hallway where the crowed was bottle necking to find the person who had come to get them. She scanned the crowed a few times before she finally spotted and old haggard looking man with a sign that said "Inora." She walked up to him.

"Hi!" she said cheerily. "I'm Inora, how are you doing?" He just gazed at her with sad eyes. "Are you ok?" finally he shook his head.

"Sorry. I'm so sorry. On your way over something terrible…." He paused to catch his breath. "Our house caught fire," was all he was able to say before he burst into tears. Inora then had to do a lot of consoling and reassuring that she would be fine. She told him that she would probably just stay for a week or two and then go home. A lot of tears and kind words later she was alone. This wasn't some high school exchange program, the only thing the "program" was for was too match the people up and do background checks. That was it. There was no protection for this sort of thing, she was on her own.

-End Flashback-

She should have learned Japanese. That had been her mistake, and her uncle had tried to warn her but in that way that you don't realize it until its too late. She had done okay with miming but it would have made her life so much easier till this point if she had learned. 'So there I was,' she thought. The saying made her chuckle but immediately wished she hadn't, she rolled over and threw up into the bushes beside her. She groaned and got out of the sleeping bag to pull it away. The movement made her even dizzier, she only got a few feet before she tripped and fell over. She rolled over and looked at the stars; it was all she could do to not throw up again. She had decided a while ago to save money on water, just drinking out of streams, another mistake.

She was sick. There was nothing else for it, she had never been this sick in her life. She had been out there for about three weeks and the last few days she had been considering going to a hospital before she thought about her cash flow, which was nonexistent. Now she knew it for sure, she needed help and badly. She gathered her strength and somehow got up. She pulled her sleeping bag over to her suitcase and piled it on top. She remembered crossing a path to get to this spot so she headed towards where she thought it was.

It seemed like she had been walking forever, she started to get worried. Her sense of direction was usually good but she was so dizzy. It didn't help that she had to keep stopping to throw up, she was miserable. Finally, she found the path. Her relief was so great that she started to cry, which she didn't do often. However, she had used every ounce of her strength to get to that point. She was in a fog but she decided that if anyone was going to find her this would be the place, it looked pretty well traveled. She let the fog consume her and she collapsed onto the path.

She was warm. That was weird. The last thing she could remember was being cold, enough so that she couldn't feel her fingers. She also remembered that she had been on the ground, dirt filling her nose, and she was alone. More alone then she had ever been in her life. Now, however, she wasn't in the dirt. She seemed to be in some sort of super soft sleeping bag. But she pushed all of that to the back of her head almost instantly because she realized she wasn't alone anymore either. She could hear the deep steady breathing of someone next to her.

Was she in danger? She pretended to be asleep still while she thought about that one. Well they couldn't be that bad if they brought her indoors and gave her a place to sleep. But what if they just did that so they could keep her locked up and make her their sex slave or something? She almost smiled at the stupidity of that thought. But still… people are weird. Finally she mentally checked over herself and decided that she was strong enough to get away if she needed to. She slid open her eyes to see who had helped her. Her mouth fell open.

The man looking down at her had to be one of the most, if not _the_ most, gorgeous people she had ever laid eyes on. He was sitting by her head and was looking at her upside down. She snapped her mouth shut but continued to explore his face; in fact it would have very had to look away. His black hair dropped down like a curtain, and his eyes somehow managed to twinkle in the dim light. Ugh, how gooey, she almost got lost in them. Once she had gotten past his eyes she noticed something else, relief washed over her, he was white.

"Oh man," she said. "Am I glad _you_ found me, thank you so much for helping me by the way!" she wanted to make it clear how glad she was while making sure not to sound racist or anything, she was just glad he could speak English. He looked confused from the moment she had started talking, and as she kept going he just looked more and more confused. She sat up ant turned to look at him, she completely misjudged why he was confused. "If you need me to I can pay you for your trouble," he was still confused. "I just… couldn't make it to a hospital. I don't even know where one is… you see?" Finally to her relief his expression cleared, but then he began to laugh. He threw back his head and everything; she didn't know what to do so she sat in silence waiting for him to let her in on the joke. He finally calmed himself down and looked at her again.

"No English" was all he said. 'Well fuck,' she thought. 'I guess I shouldn't assume that just because he's white he can speak English. I am in Japan after all.' There was nothing else for her to do but resort to pure body language. She placed her hand on her chest, smiled warmly, and bowed her head. He seemed to get the 'thank you' because he bowed his head back and rolled his wrist in a circle a few times above his head. The way very proper stage actors used to in the 1920's during a curtain call. She smiled and got the 'your very welcome' from it. They sat in an awkward silence for quite a while after that. Finally, to her complete and utter relief, three people walked in the front door.

One was a very kind looking, pretty girl with brown hair, and she was followed in by two guys. And they were as drop dead gorgeous as the man next to her on the floor, or at least they had the potential to be. They all seemed to be wearing some sort of uniform so she guessed that they were in high school. So they were boys and still had some maturing to do. One of them had sort of silver-blue hair which made her wonder if he dyed it, but he just didn't _look _like he went in for that type of thing. The other had orange hair and, wait, were those red eyes? Weird.

The gorgeous man stood up and waved at them, and in between fits of giggles told them about their new guest, or so she assumed as he kept gesturing towards her. After he looked like he was done he looked and the young girl and asked her a question. She smiled widely and walked over to Inora; she took her hand gently and pulled her up from the floor and, blabbing in Japanese the whole way, led her up the stairs to a bathroom. The whole time that she was showering, then being lead into another room to change, she was trying to think of what to do about the whole situation. It wasn't going very well though because all her mind kept going back to was the gorgeous man downstairs.

She suddenly got brought back to earth when she did the last few buttons on the dress the girl had given her to wear. If she hadn't been so distracted she would have noticed that she and the girl didn't exactly have the same body type. Inora was taller for one so the dress was quite a bit shorter then it should have been. For two, well she was curvier; it hugged her hips like a dress that you wear to a club would. She didn't mind it though; in fact it was rather sexy. The waist, thankfully, was just the right size so she could breathe comfortably. The problem was the top, her boobs threatened to bust right through the buttons. She started to undo the buttons and discovered that she only had do undo the first few if she shifted the dress a little. She checked in the mirror, it would have to do, she was covered but she looked a little slutty. She shrugged to herself, she did look good.

She walked out into the hallway where she met the girls' wide eyes. Inora grabbed the lapels of the dress and tried to pull them together in a demonstration for her. The girl smiled apologetically, Inora shrugged at her, and they walked back downstairs together. When she reached the bottom of the stairs she heard the intake of breath, she tried not to smile. She didn't care who you were that was a definite ego boost. She looked up and the two boys were staring eyes wide, mouths open. The man, on the other hand, was gazing with simple appreciation. She decided he had been round the block a few times. As she came closer to him, however, she thought she saw something else in his eyes. Was that desire?

That was annoying. She was really good at reading people and she felt a little aggravation at the fact that she couldn't tell. The girl went into the kitchen, Inora guessed to make tea, while she sat down at the table they were all sitting around. The boys continued to stare at her, though out of the corner of their eyes, while the man returned to the newspaper he was reading. 'Well that's just rude,' she thought. Then she immediately wished she hadn't, she had never been one to care what people thought of her before now. What was so different?

The girl came back carrying a tray with some sort of bread and tea. She set it down and served it to all of them. 'Ugh,' Inora thought. 'I would never be able to do that on a regular basis.' They started to talk amongst themselves while drinking their tea. Inora hated tea, but she forced it down while listening to the language and trying to get a feel for it. By the time she had finished her tea she could feel a definite rhythm to it. It no longer seemed like one string of sound, she could separate the words and recognize them when used later. So her ear for language was still working amazingly. 'Awesome!' she thought.

There was a knock on the door. When the girl got up to answer it, Inora had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. She came back in leading an older man with grey hair.

"Hello," he said to Inora. "My name is Hatsu." She almost screamed with joy.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two: Strange Family**

"Oh my god you speak English!" Inora said jumping to her feet and pointing at Hatsu. "That is fucking awesome!" Everyone was silent for a moment. "Sorry?" she said guessing it was her bad language that threw him off. Because he was he was older, about in his seventies, she didn't realize the real reason. What really happened was that when she had stood up he took in her outfit and forgot how to speak for a moment.

"I- um…er…" he stammered. He paused to clear his throat. "Sorry. Yes, I do speak English. Shigure called me over to help out."

"Shigure…?" she glanced at the gorgeous man next to her, assuming that must be him.

(A/N): For the sake of everyone's sanity I'm going to take out the parts where Hatsu is translating everything, just please keep in mind that he is. ;)

"Yes! Now that we can finally introduce ourselves, my name is Shigure Sohma!" he said with a huge smile. Inora's eyes went a bit fuzzy and she felt slightly dizzy so she sat back down as the young girl cleared her throat. 'Whoa, I'm still a little sick. I gotta remember to take it easy for a while,' she thought, she also started to feel nauseous again.

"Hi! I'm Tohru Honda, it is so nice to meet you!" the girl said.

"Hi," Inora said to them. "My name is Inora, thank you so much for all of your help. I was in pretty rough shape I guess." 'Still am,' she added in her mind.

"You guess? Are you kidding me? I've seen better color on a corpse ….. My name's Kyo by the way, Kyo Sohma." The orange haired boy said. Inora gave him a small wave and looked at the other boy. He was sitting right next to her so when she looked at him she realized for the first time that his eyes were purple. 'Strange family,' she thought.

"Hi Inora, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Yuki Sohma," he said. He gave her a very pleasant smile, and she smiled back at him. As she looked at his face, however, she saw a sadness there that he was obviously very used to hiding. 'So it's just Shigure I can't get a read on, still annoying,' she thought. She had never run into anyone that she couldn't read their face like a book. She glanced back at Shigure, he was smiling serenely. It was obvious he was thinking about something completely unrelated to the conversation but what it was? She didn't have a clue. She sighed.

"Something wrong?" Shigure asked. She covered it up.

"Yeah I was just thinking about all the mistakes I made in the past few weeks." She said sadly.

"I have been curious to find out how you got here. Do you mind telling us?" he asked.

"I don't see why not," she said. She told them the whole story about the family and how she got sick.

"Hmm, yes, I see. You did have it rough. You must be a pretty tough girl," Shigure said, winking at her and smiling. 'He is hitting on me…. no, maybe not… oh I don't know,' she thought. Some annoyance must have showed on her face because he smiled wider. "Just one question though… why didn't you just leave after a week like you said?"

"Because that would have been giving up! I would have had to go home with my tail between my legs and I just don't do that! I haven't lost a challenge yet and I don't plan on starting!" she said. Shigure had giggled at the 'tail between my legs' line, but she kept going assuming it was just an American saying, and that they hadn't heard it before.

"A challenge?" Kyo asked.

"Yeah, my uncle always challenges me to try new things and do the best I can. You see I'm super competitive, and I can't resist a good challenge. My uncle just uses that to my benefit," she explained. 'What the hell?' she thought, she was starting to feel clammy.

"Awww. That's so sweet!" Tohru said.

"Super competitive huh? Sounds like someone else I know," Yuki said looking over at Kyo. Kyo shouted something at Yuki who calmly replied back.

"I don't think there's any need for me to translate this" Hatsu said looking bored. Inora tried to include him.

"So are you a Sohma as well Hatsu?" she asked.

"Yes, I am sort of like the family interpreter," He said smiling at her.

"Wow, how big is this family? Are there more outside this house?"

"Oh yes. They are scattered here and there, but mostly they live at the estate in town. About a hundred and fifty I'd guess."

"Whoa, and I thought my family was big. Won't make that mistake again." She laughed. Yuki and Kyo, who were still fighting, rose to their feet and walked out to the backyard.

"What's up?" she asked.

"They're going to fight. Again." He said rolling his eyes.

"Happens a lot huh?" she asked. He nodded and they followed the rest outside. 'Maybe fresh air will help?' she thought. Yuki and Kyo were still saying things back and fourth, now they just sounded way more intense. Finally they stopped talking and put up their hands, it was clear even to her that they had both had a lot of training. 'Oh man I'm just getting worse. And how long did I just sleep? All night then most of the next day it looks like. Man I'm pathetic,' she thought. 'Maybe I should still go to a hospital?'

Kyo ran forward and swung at Yuki's head with his right hand. Yuki grabbed Kyo's wrist with his left hand and pulled him forward, while pulling him forward he stepped towards him and thrust his right elbow into Kyo's nose. It was clear that the force of the blow broke Kyo's nose. Kyo stumbled backwards and clutched at his face, blood was already pouring from both nostrils. He muttered something at Yuki and stood up straight. He kicked his left leg out to the side and brought it around; he was aiming for Yuki's side. Yuki very simply blocked his foot with his right arm and kicked out with his left leg. His foot connected with Kyo's diaphragm, Kyo was immediately winded and was sent flying backwards.

Kyo was sprawled out on the ground panting. Inora turned to Tohru who seemed to be frozen in place. "Would you mind getting me a towel for Kyo?" Inora asked. She nodded and went inside. Inora walked out to where Kyo was laying and Hatsu followed her. She turned to look at him and said, "You're awesome, you know that? I don't know anyone else who would be willing to do all this for a total stranger." She smiled warmly at him.

He smiled back and said, "I can already tell I'm going to like you, I'm very fast on deciding things like that. Anyway for some reason it's fun to translate for you, I really don't mind."

"Well… if I'm able to figure out how to stay in Japan maybe you could teach me the language! I'm a very quick study it shouldn't take too long," she said.

"That sounds like it could be fun," he said smiling again.

"Hey, hey, hey! Did you people forget about me down here?" Kyo said, sounding annoyed. Inora whipped around to find that he had sat up and she kneeled down beside him. He was a complete mess; the blood was still flowing and was seeping through his shirt. Tohru finally ran up with a towel, Inora grabbed it from her and gently pressed it under Kyo's nose. He winced slightly, she could see now that it was defiantly broken. She heard footsteps behind her and she thought Tohru was going for more towels.

"Yeah Kyo, It's defiantly broken but it doesn't look too bad," Inora said. He groaned and tried to tilt his head back. "No don't do that, lean forward if anything."

Kyo looked at her puzzled then said "I thought for nosebleeds you were supposed to lean back to stop the bleeding."

"No, if you tilt your head back it does nothing to stop the bleeding. All it does is make the blood run into your stomach. It could make you sick if you get too much in there."

"That's absolutely true," a voice behind her said. She jumped slightly; it had been Shigure's footsteps she had heard earlier. "Oh! Hatori would be so proud!" he sang.

"Hatori? Who's that?" she asked.

"Oh sorry, he's our family doctor. He's so overworked that he wants us to take first aid classes, but we're all too lazy. I assume that's how you knew about the blood?"

"Yeah. That and it just makes sense if you think about it."

"Hmmm. Yup, I've made up my mind I like you! You can stay at least until you are healthy again ok?"

Inora was surprised. These people had to be the nicest people she had ever met. They were all going way out of there way to help a stranger. There aren't that many people like that anymore. "Oh! Um, thanks!" she grabbed Kyo's hand and brought it up; he got the idea and held the towel to himself. She stood up and bowed, she felt a little silly but she knew that was the custom. "Thank you so much, you are all so wonderful!" Yuki walked over just in time to hear Shigure's offer. He said something to him that Hatsu didn't translate. They had a tense conversation. That is Yuki was tense, he was worried about something, Shigure just looked carefree.

"IT'S SETTLED!" Shigure sang while throwing his arms out. Yuki didn't look like it was settled. "Just make yourself at home!"

Tohru laughed, "Hehe, it's just like the speech I got!"

Standing was making Inora dizzier. She tried to clear her vision; she felt something hard hit her knees. It took her way longer than it should have to realize that it was the ground. She was on her hands and knees, her stomach was heaving but there was nothing for her to throw up. Eventually it stopped and she collapsed on the ground. Through all of this she heard them muttering franticly to each other. She felt hands on her shoulder and head. She rolled over and looked up.

Shigure had knelt down and was the one stroking her hair. Hatsu was the one at her shoulder. They both looked concerned, more concerned then they should have been considering how well they knew her. They were muttering back and fourth. Tohru, who Inora had just noticed had gone missing, came running up with a glass of water. Hatsu and Shigure helped her sit up and she sipped a bit of it.

"Sorry," Hatsu said. "We should have realized that you haven't fully recovered yet."

"No…. no, it's my fault," Inora said. "I've always had this thing about hiding that I'm sick. I shouldn't do that when I'm this bad off."

"Do you want us to call Hatori to come look at you?" Shigure asked. 'Yeah because I totally want some stuck up old dude poking me and telling me what I already know,' she thought.

"No, I'll be fine I just need to take it easy for a while. Get some fluids… you know." She also had a serious fear of needles and she didn't want any chance of having one stuck in her. That was part of the reason why she didn't go to the hospital in the first place. Shigure and Hatsu both still looked uneasy. So she gathered her strength and stood up to prove she was fine. She adjusted her too tight dress, while they said something else to each other. Hatsu cleared his throat.

"So, Inora," he said. "Did you bring anything other than yourself?"

"You mean do I have any other clothes?" she laughed. "Yeah I have a suitcase out in the woods, near where you found me," she added looking to Shigure.

"Oh! I'm not the one who found you," Shigure said smiling. "That was Yuki here he was the one that brought you back and took care of you." She looked at Yuki and smiled at him. He was so tiny it was hard to believe that he could carry her anywhere, 'But then again he did just send Kyo flying,' she thought. 'He must be stronger then he looks.' She took a step towards him.

"Thank you so much! I thought I was a goner!" she said laughing. Since her thank you was just being passed along she felt the need to show it another way as well. She walked up to him and threw her arms out. 'Does he not get a lot of hugs?' she thought as she grew closer and he started to flail around, he looked scared. 'Oh I know his type; you have to force physical contact on them.' She smiled wider and caught his arms. She heard Shigure yell something but Hatsu didn't have time to translate it before she slid her arms around him and squeezed him tightly.

"There, see? That's not so-" there was a 'poof' noise and Yuki was gone. She looked out and saw something small and fury falling through the air. She instinctively caught it and turned it around to face her. She found herself face to face with the cutest rat she had ever seen. "Bad?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three: The Zodiac**

"Um," Inora said. She looked around her franticly, hoping that maybe Yuki had fallen down and that this rat had fallen from a tree… or something? 'Ok that sounds really ridiculous,' she thought. 'But he couldn't have…' there was no Yuki anywhere, only a pile of clothes at her feet. She looked back at the little rat, it looked terrified. "Yuki?" she whispered to it. It stared back for a moment then she saw its little shoulders slump.

"Yes, it's me," the rat said in a sad voice. She looked to the others for help, but they all seemed to be frozen with their mouths open. She looked to Hatsu.

She pointed at the rat and asked, "Was this me or him?" She just wanted to know if what triggered the transformation was in her or him. Hatsu seemed to understand.

"It's him," was all he seemed to be able to say.

"Good!" she said and sighed. "You are just the most adorable little rat I've ever seen!" she squealed. She reached out with her index finger and scratched his head for a second. She knew he probably wouldn't appreciate that, being a teenager, but she couldn't help herself. When she removed her finger she saw that his little face looked astonished. She could hear the others mutter something as soon as Hatsu finished translating that in a shocked voice. Shigure had started laughing, 'Well that's a good sign,' she thought.

"Well, well, well," Shigure said. "I believe some explanations are in order. Shall we go into the house?" She nodded and started towards the house still carrying Yuki. She didn't make it very far, however, before there was another 'poof' noise. She wasn't able to even register when he left her hand before he was standing in front of her. Something wasn't quite right, 'oh I see, well that makes sense' she thought. He was naked. She heard a squeal and looked over to see Tohru running to the house with her hands literally waving above her head. Inora chuckled at the sight of her and very calmly stepped around Yuki and walked to the house.

Once inside they all sat down around the table again. It wasn't very comfortable for her to sit on the floor but she would have to adjust to it eventually. They waited for Yuki who walked in about a half a minute later still brushing dirt off of his shirt. Once he sat down Shigure clapped his hands together.

(A/N): If you haven't seen (or read) Fruits basket I'm sorry but I'm just going to give the briefest explanation I can. Also remember Hatsu is still translating. ;)

"Ok! So it goes like this," Shigure said. "Our family is cursed, Thirteen of us to be exact. Each one of us is possessed by a spirit of one of the twelve Zodiac Animals, plus the cat. If any of us is hugged by a member of the opposite sex or our body comes under a lot of stress we will transform into that animal. Are you familiar with the zodiac?"

"I know some of the animals…but no, it's not really big over there," Inora said. She noticed that it sounded like he had given this explanation a lot before.

"Yeah, by the way where exactly are you from?" he asked.

"Oh yeah, I'm from America, more specifically Oregon!" she said brightly.

"Ah I see. Yes they are more into the stars there, well no problem I'll tell you a condensed version of the story! 'God called all of the animals to come to a banquet the next day. The rat, however, had other ideas and he went and tricked the cat into believing that the banquet would be the day after next. Well the cat believed him and the next day all of the other animals went to the party except for him. He went to bed that night excited for the party the next day that would never come.'

"So you see so even though the cat is still one that possesses us he is still exiled from actually being a member. So the animals are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog and the boar. I am the dog, Kyo's the cat and as you know Yuki is the rat. Does that all make sense?" He finished.

"I-uh…yeah. About as much as it ever-wait," something had just sunk in. "one of you is a dragon? That's totally awesome!"

"Well… his form is a little complicated…" Shigure didn't get to finish, something else just struck her.

"And if the cat was tricked why is that his fault? That doesn't seem right somehow… is there something I missed in the story?" Everyone stared at her. She noticed that Kyo in particular had a sort of blazing in his eyes. She didn't think about it too much because her eyes went fuzzy again. This time Shigure was all over it. He noticed her eyes slide out of focus and her extreme blinking.

"I think you should go lay down, Yuki can go and get your things. Hatori has to come over anyway for Kyo why don't we have him look at you as well?" he asked.

All she could think of was needles for some reason. "No, no I'll be fine tomorrow after I sleep some more. Maybe I should have a glass of water before I go?" without a word Tohru ran into the Kitchen and was back with the water. As soon as Inora finished it she could feel it sitting wrong in her stomach, but she smiled anyway as she got up to leave. She started towards the other room where the sleeping bag was when Tohru started to speak very fast.

"Wait," Hatsu said as Tohru and Shigure had a quick conversation. When they had finished he said, "Tohru insists that because you are going to be staying for a while you share her room."

"Are you sure?" She asked looking at Tohru. "I really don't mind I've been sleeping outside for three weeks I'm sure I can handle a living room for a while."

"No, no while you're sick you should have more privacy so you won't be disturbed!" she said walking over to her. Without listening to any more reason Tohru grabbed her hand and led her upstairs to the room. When they got inside Tohru thrust her palms out in a 'stay' motion and ran back downstairs. When she came back she had the sleeping bag, though now that Inora really looked at it she saw that it was really a thin mattress with a single fluffy blanket on top. Inora helped her lay it out and then immediately got in it, she felt like shit. Tohru looked like she was going to object about something but Inora just waved her hand at her and rolled over. She fell asleep as soon as she closed her eyes.

When she woke up the next morning she knew right away that she was doing better. She wouldn't be running any marathons but she thought that the dizzy spells were over. She sat up and looked out the window and saw that it was morning, she guessed around seven. She could hear people talking down stairs and saw that Tohru wasn't in her bed. She looked around her and saw that her suitcase had been brought up for her. 'Well that's good,' she thought. 'This was starting to feel a little uncomfortable for me and for them. For different reasons I think.' She laughed to herself as she got dressed.

When she walked downstairs she was relieved to find Hatsu sitting at the table with the others. She smiled at him and said "Great you're here again! I don't know if I could go back to the miming."

He laughed, "Yes that would be rough, so Shigure asked me to stay last night so I could be here when you woke up in case you were worse. Actually you look much better, how do you feel?"

"Awesome actually! I'm still pretty weak but that's probably because I haven't eaten in a few days," she laughed. Hatsu said something to Tohru who immediately ran into the kitchen. 'What the hell? Is that her home or something?' Inora thought. She came back a minute later with a full plate of food and set it in front of Inora. "Thank you," she said brightly to her, and dug in. It had to be the best thing she had ever tasted, and she couldn't even name it.

"It's really not good to go without food for so long in your state," Shigure scolded.

"Well I wasn't really in any condition to go get something to eat now was I," she said with a wink between mouthfuls. He winked back and gave her a crooked smile. 'That's flirting if I've ever seen it….well… no…FUCK!' she thought. His smile had left as quickly as it had come. She knew that the frustration was all over her face but she couldn't get it off of there. She glanced over at him; he seemed to be enjoying himself.

'At least one of us is,' she had no idea why this was bugging her this much but there was nothing she could do about it.

"Oh yes. I had to tell the head of our family that you know the secret," Shigure said. "By the way I forgot to mention that. You can't tell anyone about it."

"Well yeah I figured that much out on my own," she laughed.

He smiled at her and said, "Well it needed to be said anyway I'm sure you understand that. So anyway Akito wants to meet with you before he makes his decision."

"Decision?" she asked. 'That doesn't sound good' she added in her head. She looked around the table and saw that everyone else was avoiding eye contact with her. Tohru looked terrified for some reason.

"Yes as to whether or not you can stay with us!" he said smiling. She could tell that wasn't the only decision but she played along.

"Oh ok! Yeah I'll go meet him, when is that?" she asked.

"Tomorrow morning. It will just be me, you and Hatsu. That you know anyway, Hatori might be there," he trailed off. She looked up and saw that that knowledge seemed to upset Tohru more. She suddenly felt nervous, she didn't know everything but she didn't think she wanted to either. 'I doesn't really matter it looks like I don't have a choice but to go,' she thought and plastered on a smile for them.

"Well now that that's settled I think we should be off to school don't you think?" Yuki asked looking at Tohru and Kyo. They began to get up and gather their things. And Tohru quickly cleared the table.

"So Shigure what is it that you do?" Inora said remembering that he was around all of yesterday and was showing no signs of going out today. The robe was throwing her off though, he had worn one yesterday but it was a different one. But as soon as she thought of that she remembered that people wore those here. 'Kimono, Is that what they're called?' she thought.

"Oh! I'm a novelist. I work out of the home, my study is right down the hallway there," he pointed to a hallway she hadn't gone down yet.

"Dude that's so awesome! Do you have any translated to English so I could read them?" She was excited, she loved books.

He looked surprised and said "No, I'm afraid they wouldn't be popular enough over there to justify the money that would take."

"But you never know until you try!" she said brightly. "I would totally read your stuff!"

"Well thank you that's very kind of you to say." He smiled at her. She looked into his eyes and saw a sort of burning there; he didn't look away this time. They were in the middle of a staring contest when Hatsu cleared his throat.

"I, uh, hadn't planed on staying here last night, so I think I should go home for a bit and freshen up," he said with a knowing smile. "Will you survive without me for a while?"

"Sure no problem, I got this!" she laughed. "How long will you be gone?"

"Well actually I have some other stuff to take care of so I'll probably be back around three." He got up and explained it to Shigure.

"Ok! I'll see you later then!" Inora said and Shigure gave a similar goodbye. Hatsu walked out to the front and she heard the door close. She suddenly had an awesome idea. She looked at Shigure and rested her chin in her hand. "So Shigure," she said. "You are really cute you know that?" she laughed. She was right, that did feel awesome. She was never the type of girl to just say things like that to a man. He stared at her for a moment then smiled. He said something and waved at her then got up and walked down the hallway, she assumed to his study.

She didn't blame him it was kind of awkward to sit with someone you can't talk to. She still felt annoyed 'Why the hell can't I tell if he likes me? It shouldn't be this hard,' she thought. She thought back to all of the times she thought he could have been flirting with her. After thinking about it she decided that he had to have been. 'Ugh, I'm going to go crazy if I don't find out. But how would I do that?' An idea occurred to her, but she usually didn't do things like that, it could turn out very badly. She stood up and took a deep breath. 'There's no other way.'

Inora walked down the hallway. She wanted to know, she had to know, did he think of her like that? She was usually really good at reading people but it seemed like Shigure had a veil around him. So she had to do this the hard way. She didn't particularly like the idea of just throwing herself out there but what was the worst that could happen? She didn't want to think about that. She reached a doorway and stopped, she listened hard. She could hear his pen scratching at paper, so he was in there alright and there was no turning back. She took a deep breath and walked in.  
>"hey," she said. He looked up and smiled at her. He said something in Japanese; she figured it was something about his writing because he kept gesturing to his desk. She pointed to herself then out the door thinking maybe he wanted her to leave. But he waved his hands and shook his head quickly; he set down his pen and continued to smile at her. His desk was low like their table but instead of sitting on the floor he had a really low spinning chair. She walked forward and sat to the side of his desk. This was kind of hard; she couldn't use words so she had to use straight up body language to get her point across. He drifted off staring into the distance, she couldn't blame him, she was kind of boring company right now.<br>'Ah what the hell am I doing?' she thought. 'I really don't see how this is going to work without words.' He seemed to be patiently waiting for something, smiling serenely like he always did. She tried desperately to gather her thoughts and her courage. It wasn't going well. Soon she started thinking of ways she could escape, maybe implying that she didn't want to get in the way of his work? She heard him sigh and she looked over. He was rubbing the soft spot between his neck and shoulder, he moved his head to the side to try and stretch it out. There was the window she needed, she stood and walked over to him.

She knelt down behind him and started rubbing his shoulders. He sighed and she felt his muscles immediately relax. 'Well he isn't trying to shake me off,' she thought. She started to inch closer to him. Careful of course to not bump into his back, it might ruin the mood she was trying to set if he transformed right now, though she was really curious to see his dog form. She got close enough that she could feel his body heat. Finally she bent her head slightly so her hair was brushing on his ears and shoulders. He straightened up and she heard a small, surprised "ah" escape his lips. She held her breath, this is what it all down came to.  
>He slowly turned to face her. Their eyes meet and in that instant she knew her hunch was right. She barley had time to register the burning in his eyes before his lips were on hers. Shivers ran down her spine closely followed by his hands. She had just enough sense to put her left hand on his chest to make sure they wouldn't bump into each other, but that was about the last conscious thought she had. She gently flicked her tongue against his bottom lip and his sweet breath surrounded her face, their mouths instantly became a battle ground for some sort of tag. His hand ran all the way down her back and gently squeezed her ass. She gasped and began to kiss him rougher, and he responded in kind, tag was over. It was hard for her to remember to keep her hand on his chest; she moved that hand inside the collar of his robe and pressed it against his skin. She wanted to explore more, and luckily her other hand was free.<br>Her right hand ran down his shoulder and back to squeeze the side of his ass while he ran his down the top of her dress and began to play with her breast. She slowly moved her right hand around his hip and rested it for a moment on his thigh. She just decided to go for it and slowly slipped her hand into his robe. She found that he already had a slight erection. She ran her index finger from its base all the way to the tip, she felt him shutter slightly. She smiled into his lips and wrapped her hand around the base of it; she heard a catch in his breathing. She moved her hand slowly up and down the whole length of it; he had a full erection now. She moved her lips to his neck and started opening his robe. She moved her lips down his chest, while she worked on the tie around his waist she licked lightly at his nipples. By the time she pulled the tie free he was breathing hard, his robe fell completely open.

She looked up and gave him a wink and she was surprised to see that he looked almost shocked. She leaned back down and pressed her lips to the tip of his cock, Shigure moaned slightly. She spread her lips very slowly until just the very tip was in her mouth. She bobbed her head very slowly; each time she bobbed down she took more of him in her mouth. He moaned again, it was almost a whimper.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four: Memories**

"Ah, what the hell did you just do? You idiot, what were you thinking?" Inora was on the roof of the house talking to herself, like a crazy person. She had run outside for an escape to clear her head and had found a ladder leaning on the side of the house. It seemed like a good place to hide at the time. "Now he's gonna think you're a whore!"

In all honesty she really didn't know what had come over her, she didn't mean for it to go that far. It's not like she hadn't done that before, just never ever that fast. 'Awesome. And you want to live here? Oh my god you just made that as awkward as possible! Idiot.' She continued to mentally scold herself. She heard voices and looked down to see Kyo, Yuki and Tohru coming down the path. 'How long have I been up here?' now that she thought about it her lower half was stiff and a little numb. She figured she should go inside, but she really didn't want to face Shigure right now. Even thinking his name made her nervous.

'What the hell? Why am I freaking out so much? It was just a little fun, get over it. Besides I can't stay on this roof for the rest of my life.' She started towards the ladder but found the way down blocked by an orange head. Kyo looked up surprised; he said something before he realized that she couldn't understand him. He finished climbing quickly, walked over and sat in almost the same place she had been. He was really upset about something, but it's not like she could talk to him about it. So she left him and slowly climbed down the ladder and walked to the front of the house.

She got inside and took off her shoes, when she looked up she saw the last person she wanted to see. Shigure was standing in front of her, he looked extremely smug which made her want to slap him, though she didn't know why. He said something to her in a chipper tone, she just shrugged at him.

"He said he thought you ran away?" Hatsu had come up behind her. She jumped about a foot but recovered quickly.

"Oh, no. It's not like I have anywhere else to go." 'Otherwise I would be there right now,' she added in her head.

"Is something wrong" Hatsu asked her.

"Yes, but there's nothing anyone can do now. How was your day?" She sounded a little snippy but she didn't really care.

"Oh, uh, it was fine…I suppose?" he was trying to figure out what was wrong and if there really was nothing he could do. She appreciated him trying and she made an effort to lighten her tone.

"Well that's good. I'm glad your back!" she said smiling at him. She forced herself to turn to Shigure "Sorry I just needed a second to myself," she said to him. She didn't really look into his face and she tried to walk past him into the house. He caught her arm and turned her to look at him.

"You can't blame me, for me it was harmless. You were the one in control, maybe not over your own actions, but you were in control of the situation. Do you really think it's fair to blame me for what happened?" it was the most serious she had ever heard him sound. Hatsu looked, and sounded, seriously confused as he translated it for her. Because of his age she really didn't want him to know what had happened, so she was going to word her response just right. In the end, however, she didn't need to.

"I don't blame you, I blame myself," she said quietly. She pulled away from his grip and went into the house. She thought about it some more and she really didn't blame him. And the more she thought about it she didn't blame herself, these things just happen sometimes. And she did have to admit it, it was fun. 'What's done is done,' she thought.

The rest of the evening passed without too much excitement. Hatsu, Yuki and Kyo kept shooting Inora and Shigure glances, they knew something happened they just had no idea what. Tohru remained oblivious, which Inora suspected she would be even if they told her straight out what happened. Now that that was all pretty much behind her she couldn't help but worry about the next day. She knew they still weren't telling her everything, if she couldn't stay with them what would happen? She knew their secret but there wasn't anything they could do about that now was there? She tried not to think about it as she got into bed.

She woke up the next morning to someone gently shaking her shoulder. She opened her eyes to find Shigure leaning over her. She nodded at him and he left so she could get dressed. She felt kind of bad that he had to wake her up, but she had forgotten to ask what time they had to be there. She hadn't been able so sleep very well last night because of how nervous she was. Even when she had fallen asleep she kept waking up to a faceless man shouting that she had to be imprisoned for the rest of her life for knowing their secret.

As she got dressed she wondered what would happen to her if this Akito didn't want her around. Everyone was acting strange so she was forced to believe that something bad would happen if this meeting didn't go well. She walked downstairs to find Shigure and Hatsu waiting by the front door. Neither of them could find the right words for her so they all just walked out into the morning air silently. She glanced around for a car but then she remembered that in Japan people don't drive as much as in America. She was fine with that though, the longer it took to get there the better. The problem was that it didn't take that long.

"Here we are," Hatsu said. She began to panic, they had just left how could they be there already? They were standing in front of a huge wooden gate. She looked left and right and saw that a ten foot wall surrounded the entire place. 'Who are these people?' she thought.

"I thought you said it was a mile or so away?" she said as she tried to still sound calm.

"It was. It took us almost twenty minutes to get here. Though I'm not surprised you didn't notice. You were really spaced out." He said with a slight smile. They all walked in and she searched for something to distract her. At first she noticed how inside the wall looked like a little village, the space inside was huge with a lot of buildings. All thinking of that did, however, was remind her of how big and important this family was. She quickly thought of something else, she had noticed something earlier and decided on that.

"Hatsu, if you don't mind me asking, how old are you?" she asked him.

"I am seventy three, and still kickin'! Why do you ask?"

"Well I noticed that the way you talk is a strange mixture of proper and slang," she said. He said everything like he was at a dinner party but then he would throw in terms like 'Spaced out'.

"Ah yes, well you see I learned English about five years ago. And the man that taught me was twenty five. I'm sure you can put that together." The distraction wasn't good enough. Her breathing started to get faster as they came up to the biggest of the buildings. When they stepped inside she saw that it wasn't a home, it looked more like a semi-official building. She could feel it; she was on the verge of hyperventilating.

"I need a bathroom!" she almost shouted. They both stared at her for a moment a little taken aback by her abruptness.

"Go around that corner, go all the way down then go around another corner and it will be immediately on the left… uh, do you want me to show you?" Hatsu asked pointing at the first corner.

"No, no I got it." She just needed a second to be alone. She turned and went around the corner, there were doorways down the left side and it went down pretty far. She hurried down the hallway and around the corner to the bathroom, and quickly closed herself inside. She had never been this nervous in her life and she really didn't know why she was. She knew they weren't telling her something but there was no way it could be as bad as she was thinking. She splashed some water on her face 'you're going to feel really silly when you leave here,' she told herself. 'You are freaking out for nothing.' She couldn't keep them waiting so she calmed her breathing down, with some difficulty, and went back to the hallway.

She headed towards the first corner but as soon as she rounded it she collided with something hard. She heard a 'poof' noise and it took her a second to place where she had heard it, from Yuki. She reached out to catch whoever she had just transformed and something kind of scaly landed in her hands. She peered down at it and was at a complete loss for words, it was a seahorse. She recovered quickly and asked the most important question.

"Do you need water?" she asked in a calm but urgent tone, it squeaked at her. 'Great it squeaks, they probably don't understand English anyway.' She thought. She ran back to the bathroom and started filling up the sink. It began to squeak more, a series of squeaks that sounded almost like talking. 'Wait, it would need air to make noises. Maybe it still has lunges?' she held it close to her ear and listened hard, it took a second but then she could hear it breathing. 'Ok so no water. Well maybe I should bring him to Shigure and Hatsu?' she went back to the hallway and started down it when she stepped on something soft, it was his clothes.

'Well he'll transform soon and I'm sure he doesn't want me to see him naked.' She knelt down and gently placed him on the floor, and then she grabbed his robe and put it over him like an oversized blanket. She waited with him but it seemed to be taking much longer this time. She started thinking that she should just leave him and go back to the others when there was another 'poof' and the man sat up. Her mouth fell open, 'what is the deal with this family,' she thought.

This man was even better looking then Shigure was. He was staring back at her and she felt the urge to avert her eyes, she looked down at his robe. Now that she was really looking she saw that it wasn't a robe, it was a white jacket like a doctor would wear. She looked into his face again.

"Hatori?" she asked. He nodded and said something. She found it funny, she had thought their family doctor would be at least in his fifties, but he looked like he was the same age as Shigure. He continued to try to speak to her, and all she could to was shrug and shake her head. She heard footsteps behind her and turned to see Hatsu and Shigure coming over to them.

"Oh here you are! We were starting to think you ran away again! Here it turns out Hatori was the one distracting you," Shigure said with a grin. 'He defiantly is distracting,' she thought.

"We had better not keep Akito waiting any longer," Hatori said. She noticed that he had a very deep, smooth voice.

"Oh so you are coming," Shigure said looking serious, Hatori didn't answer him. Inora saw Shigure glance at her, and she guessed that Hatori being there wasn't good news for her.

"Uh, I guess we should go and let Hatori get dressed," Inora said. She really didn't want to go but she also wanted to seem brave. The others nodded and they walked down the hallway together. She focused on her breathing, trying desperately to keep it even. Too soon they came to a heavily decorated door and stopped, Shigure reached out for the handle.

"Wait," Inora said. "I wanna know… if this doesn't go well what will happen to me?" Shigure just looked at her for a second.

"Your memories will be erased. It's kind of like hypnotism, you will simply wake up and not remember the parts we don't want you to," he said sadly. She just nodded; she couldn't find her voice even if there was something she could think of to say. She really didn't like the idea of someone messing with her memories but it wasn't like she had a choice at this point. He nodded back and opened the door, they all walked inside.

"Akito we're here. Sorry about the wait we were held up a bit," Shigure said. A man was standing at the window at the far side of the room. He turned to look at them and Inora was surprised. She had been expecting an older man but he was in his twenties, he was also good looking but his features were sharp and cruel looking.

"Well hello. I'm so glad you could make it," Akito said in a tone that sounded like he wasn't glad at all. "Why don't you come in and have a seat?" Shigure walked to a row of hangers and hung up his coat, it looked a lot like a heavier robe to Inora. Hatsu placed a hand on her shoulder and steered her over and helped her with the coat Tohru lent her, she needed it, her hands were shaking badly. He noticed this and grabbed her hand briefly and squeezed it reassuringly. After he took his coat off they all knelt down in a line in front of Akito, from how stuffy and formal it was Inora had a bizarre felling she was underdressed. Inora had Shigure on her right and Hatsu on her left; Hatori entered the room quietly and slid in next to Shigure.

"So I gave this a great deal of thought, believe me," Akito said, Inora didn't believe him. "I think this woman presents far too big of a risk."

"He decided before we even got here! What the hell was the point of having us come down here? To rub it in my face?" Inora said to Hatsu, which he didn't translate. She was starting to freak out. Hatsu put his hand on her shoulder; she couldn't help but notice that Shigure did nothing to comfort her.

"Now Akito I think we can find a little wiggle room here," Shigure said.

"I find it interesting that you seek to get yet another woman into your house Shigure. How long did you know this one before you told her everything?" Akito said coldly.

"It's not my fault that strays keep finding my house, or that those strays are overly huggy," Shigure said with a hint of a smile pulling at his lips.

"Don't _test_ me Shigure!" Akito said, his voice rising.

"Please, I wouldn't dream of it," Shigure calmly replied. Inora was starting to think that they were getting off topic.

"Um, if I can say something?" She said looking at Hatsu, he nodded. "Uh, I don't speak Japanese so how could I tell anyone?"

"You could tell people who are where you are from," Akito said quickly.

"They would never believe this! Are you kidding me?" she said gesturing around at all of them.

"All it takes is one. I am not amused," he said starting to get angry. 'I wasn't trying to amuse you asshole,' she thought.

"You could at least give me a chance before you mess with my brain!" she said.

"I grow tired of this. Hatori do it now," he said sounding bored. Hatori rose and faced her. 'So that's why Hatori was bad news for me,' she thought.

"No wait! There has to be something!" Inora didn't even have a clue what she was talking about. She looked at Hatsu who couldn't seem to make eye contact, so she looked to Shigure. They looked at each other for a moment, and he saw the 'help' screaming clearly through her eyes. He stood up suddenly and put a hand on Hatori's shoulder then he walked over to Akito and they had a low, tense conversation. Hatsu wasn't translating, but she was more concerned about Hatori at that moment. She looked up at him and they made eye contact. His bright green eyes were intense; they showed very clear that he had no wish to take her memories. They continued to stare at each other, but they both snapped out of it when Akito spoke suddenly.

"I have decided that you may stay. Now leave my sight." Akito said waving them away in an offhanded way. Before Inora fully knew what was happening they were outside already making their way back. 'How and when did we get here? I don't even remember putting on my coat again, that can't be good,' she thought. She was finally able to clear her head and started trying to figure things out. 'When he said 'stay' did that mean for the year or just until I can make arrangements to get back? And what the hell did Shigure do that made Akito change his mind?' From the look on Shigure's face it couldn't be good.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five: The Rose of Winter**

Weeks went by and nothing came of their little meeting with Akito. As time went on she discovered that 'stay' meant for the year. At first she wasn't sure that was a good thing. She had tried to get Shigure to tell her the condition he had agreed to on her behalf but he wouldn't budge. She could see that it worried him but all he would say was 'don't worry about it'. Eventually she did stop worrying about it as Shigure became more and more obsessed with making sure that she was completely 'distracted' every moment she had alone. She couldn't for the life of her describe their relationship but she loved every minute that they were alone together. She knew that neither one of their feelings were that deep but he was just insanely fun to be around.

Just like he promised, Hatsu taught her how to speak Japanese. It became a sort of ritual, he would come over for breakfast then she would take lessons for almost eight hours a day, five days a week. She had been right; her gift for languages sped up the process considerably. In about two weeks time she was able to hold quite a bit of conversation with Shigure and the others. At two and a half weeks the language ratio for the lessons had finally shifted to favor Japanese. The night before the beginning of the third week she got a call.

"Hello?" she said after taking the phone from Shigure.

"Hi Inora. Listen, I just twisted my ankle like an idiot, wo-" Hatsu started but Inora cut him off.

"Oh no! Are you ok? How bad is it? Do you have ice on it?" Inora blabbed. Over the past few weeks she had really began to like her teacher. His sweetness combined with his age made her feel like he was her grandpa, and she knew that he looked at her like she was his grandkid.

"Yes, yes it's fine," he laughed. "Hatori just came and looked at it, he wrapped it up nice, I just have to stay off of it for a few days is all. So if you would like you could come here for the lesson?"

"Huh? Oh yeah," she said a little absentmindedly. As soon as he mentioned the doctor her thoughts drifted a bit, but she recovered. "Yes I'll be there around nine?"

"That sounds great I'll see you tomorrow. Bye" he said and hung up the phone.

The next day she was walking to the Sohma's estate holding the breakfast Tohru had forced her to bring to Hatsu. She couldn't help but think about the last time she had been walking this way. 'Strange, now I'm actually excited to get there, well as long as I don't run into Akito.' She thought. She had just gotten out of the woods that surrounded Shigure's house when she spotted an old man staring of into space. As she got closer she could hear him muttering to himself.

(A/N): Remember she now speaks a lot of Japanese. The /-/ are for when she doesn't know what the word is.

"No, no this isn't the way." He muttered. "Where the /-/ am I?" he didn't sound frustrated, he was very calm for someone that had no clue where they were. 'Well I don't know too much about the area but it won't hurt to see if I can help.' Inora thought to herself.

"Excuse me sir? Are you lost?" she asked approaching him, he turned to her.

"Yeah I am. You wouldn't happen to know where the Sohma Estate is…" He Asked taking in her obvious foreign clothing. She was very surprised, he wasn't an old man, he was just a boy about the same age as Tohru and the others. And now that she really looked at him she saw that he looked like he was dressed for a rave. What had thrown her off was that he had white hair, but when she looked closely he had black roots. 'He must dye it' she thought.

"I, uh… yes." She stuttered. "I'm actually going there now, you, um, can come with me?" she posed the statement like a question.

"If you wouldn't mind," he laughed. "I've been lost for about three days now."

"No I don't mind, so are you a Sohma?" She asked, trying to figure out why he was going there.

"Yes," he said as they started to walk. "Are you? I haven't seen you around…"

"No. I'm just taking Japanese lessons from someone there," she said. "By the way my name is Inora, what's yours?"

"Ah so that's why your speaking so formally. I was /-/ why that was. My name is Haru," He said spacing out a little again. They walked in silence for a while; she was trying to figure out how someone could be lost for three days without being found. The Sohma family was so big someone should have cared about him being gone. 'But then again I have no idea what his home life is like. It might suck.' She thought of her uncle and what he would do if she suddenly disappeared. She stopped in her tracks.

"Oh my god my Uncle!" she said in English, slapping her forehead. 'How could I just forget to call him for three weeks!' she thought franticly. She had called him at the airport to say that she had gotten there, but she hadn't told him the situation. She was going to wait until she figured out what she was going to do before worrying him. Ever since the meeting with Akito she had meant to call him. Whenever she had a moment alone, however, Shigure had been there, 'but I do like his distractions,' she thought.

"Um, miss? Are you alright?" Haru asked watching her face tense up then turn spacey with a kind of smile playing at her lips.

"Huh? Oh yeah, sorry. I just realized I forgot to do something important." She said still a little spacey. 'Oh well I'll just remember to call when I get back, there's not a whole lot I can do now.' She thought as she started walking again. They continued to walk in silence until they reached the Sohma front gate. She stood and looked at it again recalling the last time she had been here. 'What do I do, just go in?' she thought. Haru must have seen the dilemma on her face.

"Come on in," he said pushing open the gate.

"Ah Haru. /-/ to see you made it back," a voice said making her jump slightly. She turned and saw a sort of guard post she didn't notice the last time. "And who might this be?" he asked looking at her.

"Um, hi, I'm Inora I'm here to see Hatsu?" she said posing it as a question. 'What's the deal with this family and zapping all of my self confidence?' she thought, annoyed.

"Hatsu?" Haru asked. "Oh well I /-/ that kind of makes sense," he muttered more to himself.

"Ah yes he is expecting you," the guard said. "Do you need help finding it?"

"I'll be fine if you just give me some directions," she said.

"Oh well I hope you have a better sense of direction then Haru here," he laughed and gave her pretty simple instructions. "Haru, Akito wants to see you right away." He said with a more serious note in his voice.

"Ok," he said simply and took a step but then stopped. "Um I've already been gone for three days maybe someone should take me."

"I can" Inora said. "I remember the way," she added in a quieter voice.

"If you're sure," the guard said. Haru and Inora took off without another word. They walked silently through the buildings, when she saw the big building that Akito was in she stopped, remembering Akito's face as he ordered the doctor to mess with her brain.

"There you go," Inora said quietly. He saw the look on her face and understood immediately that she must have already had a run in with Akito.

"Thank you," he said as he started towards the building. She felt bad that he had to go alone; she didn't think she could ever do that. "Say 'hi' to Hatsu for me will you?" she watched for another second still felling bad, then she turned and started towards Hatsu's house. She walked looking at the ground as she often did when she was worried, only glancing up to make sure she was going the right way. She found the house easily enough but outside she got distracted by a bush that had beautiful flowers dotted all over it.

She bent to examine them closely, they had pink peddles that turned purple towards the outside. They were some of the most beautiful flowers she had ever seen. She heard a door close and someone walk up behind her; she was too into the flowers to look around, so she just assumed that it was Hatsu.

"Hey," she said in English before she remembered his idea to use Japanese as much as possible, even with him, so she switched over. "These are beautiful, what are they called?"

"The Japanese Camellia," the person said, it wasn't Hatsu, she jumped slightly at the strange voice. She turned to see who it was and her brain turned to mush. "It's also called The Rose of Winter," he finished.

"Oh," was all she seemed capable to say. She had thought about him quite a bit but she had obviously under romanticized him. Hatori was there, standing in front of her, completely unaware of what he was doing to her brain. His hair was waving slightly in the breeze and, unlike last time, he looked at ease and was even smiling slightly.

"I like them as well but they don't have much /-/" He said looking at her warmly. She couldn't help but beam at him and she could feel her cheeks turning red. 'Come on!' she thought franticly. 'For the love of God, come up with something better then 'oh'!'

"I, uh," she stuttered, and then cleared her throat. "They might actually be my new favorite! Not that I really had one before. By the way what was the last word you said?" she decided to be honest and ask. He looked confused for a moment then it hit him.

"Oh! I'm sorry you're doing so well, I completely forgot that you're still learning Japanese," he said smiling at her. "Uh, it's smell?"

"Oh I see," she said simply and turned to smell them. "They have a subtle smell, but it's very sweet," she said turning to look at him again. "You just have to have faith that it's there." They stared at each other for quite a while; someone cleared their throat making them both jump a little.

"Are you going to come in or stand out in the rain all day?" Hatsu asked with a laugh.

"Oh," she said looking up at the sky; she hadn't noticed that it had started to rain. 'This guy really does turn my brain to mush,' she thought. She laughed and beamed at Hatsu, "I hadn't noticed it started to–oh! What are you doing? You shouldn't be walking around!"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he said waving her off as she started towards him. "Hatori if you would like you can come back in for a cup of tea. Our 'lessons' aren't really lessons anymore; we just kinda sit around and talk."

"Thank you," he said. "But I do have a lot of work I need to finish today." He waved at them and started to walk off but Inora stopped him.

"Oh, um, Hatori?" she asked unsure if she should call him that or doctor. "First of all is it ok if I call you that?"

"Of course," he said. His eyes were soft and a smile was pulling at his lips. She got completely distracted and forgot where she was going with this. "What's the other thing?" he prompted.

"Oh, um-yeah" she said trying to recover. "Sorry about last time, I mean when I transformed you, I didn't really get a chance to apologize then."

"No need to apologize," he said smiling at her again. "In fact that was the best anyone has ever reacted to my Zodiac form. I get thrown into a bath tub more often then not," he said and he began to laugh. She couldn't help but join in, his laugh was rich and deep, she also got the feeling that laughing was a rare thing for him. He waved and walked off, leaving her to stare after him.

"Come inside Inora, before you catch a cold." Hatsu said with a smile. She walked into his house and settled herself on his couch. "You know I don't think I have ever seen Hatori smile so much."

She felt her face turn red, "Well it's not like I had anything to do with it," she said sounding a little defensive. 'What's up with me?' she thought.

"Well if you insist," he said with a smile. "But I, for sure, have never heard him laugh."

"Whatever," she said rolling her eyes. She didn't want hope, the hope that he might like her. 'Hope just leads to disappointment,' she thought. "Anyway there are a few words I ran into today that I need help with." They went on with their regular lesson and Hatsu took the hint not to bring up Hatori anymore. As she got up to leave she remembered something.

"Oh yeah, I ran into a boy that was lost this morning, he was around my age." She said as she gathered her things. "His name was Haru and he said to say hi."

"Oh, that's my grandson." He said simply. "Yes he gets lost quite a bit, thanks for bringing him back."

"Your grandson?" she asked. "Sorry, but I didn't know you had a family like that, I mean I know you're a Sohma…"

"I don't really. My wife died a few decades ago giving birth to Haru's mother. His mother was going to be a single parent but then she took off when she saw his Zodiac form." He said, she noticed that he didn't sound all that sad. He even laughed and said, "Hatori had a hell of a time tracking her down to erase her memories."

"I'll bet," she said lamely, she couldn't think of anything to say to him.

"Yes, you see my name is Hatsuharu. Since the mother wasn't around to give her son a name the family named him after me, so I go by Hatsu and he goes by Haru, not very creative huh?" he said with a smile.

"No I think those are awesome names," she said smiling back. "Anyway I have to go I remembered on my way here that I haven't called my uncle in three weeks."

"That's not good," he said with a laugh. "I'll see you later!"

"Bye," she said as she walked out the door. She hurried out of the gates and made her way back to Shigure's house. It was still raining really hard and she was completely soaked by the time she got there.

"I'm back!" she yelled into the house. She still didn't feel comfortable calling it 'home'. She looked down and noticed that her hair was dripping; she went back out to the porch and wrung it out. The whole walk back she couldn't stop thinking about Hatori, his eyes and smile were so warm, and then something else had occurred to her. She walked back into the house searching for anyone that could answer her question. She went through the whole house before she found Shigure in his study.

"Hey," she said. "I have a question for you, I actually should have asked a while ago…" she walked over to him.

"And what is th- why are you so wet?" He had finally looked up and became distracted.

"It's raining, duh," she said with a smile. "But never mind that, how old are you?"

"I'm not sure I can 'never mind' this sight," he said, smiling, with his eyes running over her body. "But to answer your question I'm 27. Come to think of it how old are you?"

"You don't seem that worried that you could have been committing a crime," she said laughing at him. "I'm 20."

"There, see? No problems," he said with an evil grin. He grabbed her hips and pulled her down onto his lap, while making sure she didn't collide with his chest. He placed his hand in her wet hair and pulled her lips to his. 'God I love his distractions,' she thought, but she needed to focus still.

"And how old is Tohru and the others?" she asked as he nibbled on her ear. She didn't really care about how old they were, but she didn't want to draw attention to the question she really wanted to know the answer to.

"There all 17," he mumbled against her neck.

"Oh, cool. And, uh, how old is Hatori?" she asked hoping he would be distracted enough.

"He's 27 as well. We went to school together along with aya." He mumbled as he made his way back to her lips. She knew he was trying to silence her but she didn't mind, she got the information she needed. '27 is not bad,' she thought.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six: He's Coming**

(A/N): when something is in (these) it means she said it in English! ;) Also a thank you to Abigaily Sohma for making me believe that this story wasn't completely boring after all! Yay!

The next morning she woke up really groggy. She looked up at the ceiling and saw that she wasn't in her room; she felt a weight on her arm and rolled over. She was face to face with a large black dog; she realized that his transformation had been what woke her up. She remembered what had happened last night, 'Shigure and his distractions,' she thought. They had moved from his study into his room when Tohru and the others came back and she had fallen asleep in there. She groaned as she remembered that she forgot to call her uncle again. The noise woke Shigure up, he rolled onto his back then laughed when he saw that he had transformed.

"I don't think I've ever slept through one of my transformations before. It's a little unsettling to wake up like this," he said.

"Shigure you (fucking) distracted me again! I really, really need to call my uncle. He must be worried sick." She said a little annoyed.

"Hey it's not my fault you look so sexy when you're wet," he said with an evil dog grin. There was a 'poof' and Shigure was lying on top of the covers completely naked. It really looked like it didn't bother him at all, 'of course he may just be trying to get something started again,' she thought.

"Just go call him now, no big deal," he shrugged. She thought it was a big deal but she had lost the will to fight him after he called her sexy.

"(yeah, yeah)," she said as she stalked out of his room. She was just glad she could escape his nakedness without getting distracted again. She ran upstairs to the room she shared; she crept inside because Tohru was still sleeping. She routed quietly though her suitcase and found the objects she was looking for then tiptoed back out of the room. Inora had insisted on living out of her suitcase, Tohru had tried to give her some drawers in her dresser, but it just didn't sit right with Inora for some reason. It was for the same reason she wouldn't let Shigure get her a bed, and she wouldn't call it 'her room.' She was tying desperately not to get attached to the house or the people in it.

She went to the kitchen and found a wall socket to plug her phone into. As soon as it finished turning on it erupted into a long string on vibrations. She rolled her eyes, 'Of course he would be freaking out,' she thought. As soon as the vibrating stopped she closed out of all the windows telling her that she had missed things, and found him in her contacts. She held the phone to her ear but had to jerk it away as soon as he answered.

(A/N): so obviously while she is talking to her uncle they are using English. The () are for when she is talking to everyone else… tell me if you think that's to complicated.

"INORA! I HAVEN'T HEARD FROM YOU IN FOREVER! ARE YOU ALRIGHT? DO YOU NEED ANYTHING?" he shouted into the phone. He continued to rant for quite some time while she held the phone a foot from her ear. She knew from experience that she should just wait until he was finished, or passed out from lack of air. When it sounded like he was done she put the phone tentatively back to her ear.

"Okay, Daniel I need you to not interrupt and just listen to what happened ok?" she said. He shut up right away because when she used his whole name he knew she was serious. She told him the whole story of what happened, when she was finished he was silent for so long that she thought that the call had dropped. She glanced at her phone to see if the call was sill active at just the right time; his voice came screaming out of it.

"INORA HOW COULD YOU STAY THERE! YOU COULD HAVE BEEN HURT! THESE PEOPLE AREN'T EVEN CHECKED OUT!" He continued to rant like that for about five minutes.

"Dan you need to calm down, you're going to give yourself a heart attack," she said as soon as she could get a word in.

"DON'T TELL ME TO BE CALM!" he shouted. She heard him take a deep breath. "Well I suppose you have been there for almost a month, if anything bad was going to happen it would have," he muttered mostly to himself. "So tell me what this family is like."

"Well… it's not what you would call a… traditional family," she said slowly.

"What kind of family is it?" he asked suspiciously. She didn't really know how to explain it so she just settled for telling him about each person.

"Well there's Shigure and he owns the house, then there are two other boys, they're Shigure's cousins, Yuki and Kyo. And then I share a room with a girl named Tohru, who isn't related to them. I guess they all sort of found each other and made a family." she explained.

"So you are living with three men? How old are each of them?" he demanded.

"Oh, Well, Kyo and Yuki are only 17-"

"Almost 18," he interrupted.

"Uh…yeah. And Shigure is 27," she finished deciding not to lie. She could hear him trying to calm himself down through the phone. Shigure picked that exact time to come into the kitchen, and upon seeing her in her rather skimpy night clothes, tried to kiss her. Normally she wouldn't blame him, she was wearing a tank top and extremely short shorts, 'but can't he see I'm on the phone?' she thought franticly. She tried to shove him away but he just took that as a challenge and started tickling her. She couldn't stop her self from bursting out in laughter.

"(Stop it Shigure!)" she said in between fits of giggles. Because she had been talking to her uncle she forgot to say it in Japanese. She froze as soon as she realized what she had done; she closed her eyes waiting for the screaming to start again.

"I'm coming," was all she heard before he hung up. She stared at the phone in disbelief for a whole minute before setting it back down. 'What the hell does he mean he's coming? He can't mean he's coming here right?' she thought in a stupor. But when she thought about her uncle she couldn't think of any other explanation. She turned around and smacked Shigure on the shoulder.

"Ow! What did I do?" he asked trying to sound innocent.

"Thanks a lot! He heard you and now he's coming!" she said glaring at him.

"I think actually 'he' heard you. And who is 'he' anyway?" he asked her as she stomped out of the kitchen.

"My uncle (dumbass)!" she shouted over her shoulder as she went up the stares. As the morning went on she kept trying to call her uncle back but he refused to answer the phone. Finally, after an hour of silence he called her.

"Inora I don't have much time to talk. I got a plane ticket and I'm on my way. I'll be there at two a.m. your time. Oh I have to go my cab's here," he said in a rush.

"Wait! Two tonight, or morning-whatever? Dan? Dan?" she said but he was already gone. "(Gah! I can't believe this! He never listens to me! I'm just fine; I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself!)" She ranted to herself in English. Someone put their hands on her waist and she jumped about a foot before she faced him.

"You're so jumpy," Shigure said wrapping his arms around her waist as far as he could while still keeping their chests separated.

"Well stop sneaking up on me," she said with a slight smile, but the smile soon slipped away. "So my uncle is furious and he's on his way here, would you mind if he stays for a while?"

"Of course not, as long as he doesn't go crazy and try to beat me up for being with you," he said with one of his stupid grins, but when he looked at her his grin slowly disappeared. "He wouldn't, would he?"

"Um, well… would you mind if we kept 'us' a secret?" she asked slowly. 'How am I supposed to explain my relationship to Dan if I can't even explain it to myself?' she thought.

"Oh forbidden romance, I see now that you can not bear to be seen with me in public! Oh woe is me! But fear not for I shall pick up the scattered pieces of my heart and be content to be with you behind closed doors!" He said with the back of his hand pressed to his forehead. He ended the show with closing his eyes and pretending to faint. She rolled her eyes at him, 'he's so dramatic,' she thought.

"Stop fooling around," she said a little coldly. She was honestly worried that she had hurt his feelings, she couldn't tell if this was just an act or if he was trying to cover up his real feelings. "Does it honestly not bother you?" she asked almost in a whisper.

"No I understand, it's not like we are engaged or anything," he said being serious. "And we wouldn't want you dragged back to Oregon now would we," he added with a smile.

"No we wouldn't, I really like it here," she said smiling back. 'And yet again we tip toed around defining our relationship. This can't exactly be healthy,' she thought but she wasn't about to bring it up. "Ok on to the next problem."

"Which is?" he asked looking suspicious.

"A car," she laughed. "Do you drive? He'll be here at two a.m. or at least I think that's what I heard."

"No I don't drive," he said slowly. He paused for a moment then his face lit up. "I know I'll call Ha'ri! He can take you!" he said brightly then ran to the phone.

"Ha'ri?" she asked following him.

"Oh that's what we, aya and myself, call Hatori," he explained. She felt a blush creep up on her face at the mention of his name. He dialed the number and she could tell, even from where she was standing, that Hatori sounded annoyed at Shigure's voice.

"Ha'ri my love! How I've missed-" Shigure started but Inora snatched the phone away from him.

"Don't annoy the poor guy before you've even asked him! (Dumbass!)" She almost yelled at Shigure, then she took a deep breath and put the phone to her ear.

"Um, Hatori?" she asked quietly. She scolded herself for sounding so nervous.

"Inora, it is nice to hear from you again, thank you for taking the phone from Shigure. How have you been?" He asked and she noticed the lighter tone to his voice. 'At least I don't annoy him as much as Shigure does,' she thought.

"Oh I've been better. Listen I have a huge favor to ask and you can feel free to say no if you want. I actually feel horrible about asking but-Oh! I'm sorry how are you?" she was babbling, and that annoyed her. 'Pull yourself together idiot!' she scolded herself. She heard him laugh at her randomness.

"A bit tired perhaps but I can't really complain. What is it you want me to do?" he said kindly.

"Well, you see, my uncle heard about my, um, situation and he decided to come here. He has such a one track mind that I can't stop him… like a rhino," she muttered the last part then laughed, she heard him join in on the other end. "Anyway I need a ride to go pick him up at the airport."

"That shouldn't be a problem, when is he arriving?" he asked.

"Well you see that's the part that's the problem. It's going to be here at two a.m. tonight-or tomorrow morning-whatever."

"Ah I see, well I can sleep a little before and then after so it is not that big of a problem. I'll se you later tonight?" he asked brightly.

"Uh, yeah! Thank you so much! I owe you big time! Bye," she said and hung up the phone. She turned to beam at Shigure who seemed to be shocked beyond words. She couldn't see why 'it can't be that hard to get a favor form Hatori, he's so nice,' she thought.

"Hatori laughing," he muttered mostly to himself. "Well that is very nice to hear." He surveyed Inora for quite a while. "So he said he would go? That's great, I should probably stay here huh?" he asked brightly.

"Unless you wanna get punched in the face? Yeah." She said with a smile.

"Right, I'll just meet him tomorrow morning then. Give him a chance to sleep it off," he laughed. The rest of the morning they figured out sleeping arrangements. It was decided that while Dan was there he would get the sleeping bag in the living room. Shigure had voiced the idea that Kyo and Yuki share a room and Dan get the other one, but he almost got beat to a pulp so he dropped it right away. Inora had assured them that he would be fine on the floor, he was pretty young. That just left the problem of where Inora was going to sleep sense they only had one sleeping bag, until Tohru pointed out that her bed was huge and Inora and her could share it. Shigure liked that idea very much.

"I love it! Give you two a chance to bond and spread your wings of friendship!" he said with a huge grin. A grin that only got bigger when Inora apologized in advance for being a sleep cuddler. No one besides Inora had gotten what he was trying to get at.

"Dirty old man," Inora muttered to him as soon as they were out of ear shot of the others.

"I can't help it, but that reminds me, I need to set up some cameras…" he muttered back, she smacked him. The rest of the day went by quickly until the sun set, then it seemed like time came to a complete halt. She knew what it was, when she was thinking of not wanting her uncle to come was when time had gone quickly. Time seemingly slowed when she started to get excited about seeing Hatori. She sat on the living room couch staring out of the window ignoring all of the commotion around her; apparently Yuki had managed to piss Kyo off again. She was too lost in her own thoughts to really care. 'Wow, I don't think I can hide it from myself any longer, not that I was doing a good job of it anyways. I defiantly have a thing for Hatori. How big of thing is what I don't know though,' she thought. She thought back to the first time they had met, when she couldn't even make eye contact. Then she thought about when he had told her about the Rose of Winter. 'Well I don't believe in love at first sight, you have to work at love. But I think it's safe to say that I have more then just a little crush.' Shigure walked in and sat next to her, closer then was necessary.

He ran a finger up her arm and over her shoulder and started drawing patterns on her neck. "What are you thinking about?" he asked quietly.

"Us," she said in a half truth. "I'd kinda like to know what's up."

"What's up?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I mean, with us. What are we exactly?" she asked pointing between the both of them.

"Ah, I see. In all honesty I don't know. Do you know?" he said while still drawing on her neck with his finger. She shook her head.

"I've been trying to figure it out for a while now," she said looking at the floor.

"Well that explains some things. Do you want it to stop?" He asked, and as an example took his finger off her neck. She considered that for a long time then chose her words carefully.

"Well… I don't think so, but if this doesn't change it might end soon? I don't in anyway mean that as a threat, I'm good with just having fun as long as you are, I just mean something might come up," she said trying to keep Hatori from her thoughts. "Do you see what I mean?"

"Yes I think I do. You're saying that our relationship-whatever is just fun. No strings attached kind of thing. And we'll keep going until something better comes along, for either one of us, or you move. Is that right?"

"Well… when you say it like that it sounds… cheap. But pretty much yeah?" She said intently staring at his face to try and get a reading. His face split into a huge grin.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE!" he said while tackling her. They both got knocked off the couch and there was a 'poof' and suddenly there was a black dog on top of her.

"You're such a guy!" she said with a smile and smacked him lightly on the shoulder.

"Hey you don't hit as hard when I'm in my dog form!" he said and licked her on her cheek.

"You're cuter in this form," she said with a laugh.

"It is harder to get mad at him when he looks like that," a voice above them said. Inora looked up to see an upside down Hatori gazing at the pair on the floor. She beamed up at him.

"Hatori you're earlier then I thought!" She said completely forgetting about Shigure, who was on top of her still.

(A/N): hmmm. I'm not sure about this one I could really use some feedback… lol sorry about all the 'dumbass'! I had just watched That 70's Show before I wrote it.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven:**** Misunderstanding**

(A/N): OMG! Sorry, sorry, I am so sorry! I APOLOGIZE TO THE WORLD! And did I mention sorry? Lol I forgot to ever give you a full description of Inora! MY BAD! Ok so she is 5'5 with blond hair and blue eyes. Any other questions just ask! ...sorry. Lol

"When did you get here?" Inora asked still gazing at Hatori from the floor.

"Just a few moments ago, I finished a little earlier then usual this evening so I decided to wait here," he said staring at the sight of them on the ground with an odd expression. There was a 'poof' and Inora almost jumped out of her skin and let off a little squeak.

"Oh don't mind me, I'm just the naked man sitting on top of you," Shigure said with heavy sarcasm. Inora had completely forgotten that he was there even though he had been sitting on top of her the whole time in his dog form.

"Go put some clothes on," Inora and Hatori said at the same time, making Inora blush and try to look away from Hatori. That didn't go well, however, because it seemed like everywhere else was filled up with naked Shigure. It looked to Inora like he wasn't particularly trying to hurry with getting his robe back on; she rolled her eyes as she sat up.

"If you don't mind me asking, how did you two end up like that?" Hatori asked with the same odd expression on his face.

"I tackled her," Shigure said shrugging. Hatori mumbled something that she couldn't quite hear; he walked over and plopped down on the couch looking a little annoyed. 'What's up with him? I've never seen him act like this,' she thought.

"Hatori is something bothering you?" she asked. He locked eyes with her for a long moment before replying.

"No, nothing. Thank you for your concern though," he said softly smiling at her. With the way he talked it was hard for her to remember that he was only 27 years old. 'That's probably because he's a doctor, people expect that from doctor's right?' she asked herself. She hadn't noticed that they were still staring at each other until someone cleared their throat loudly.

"Well I can see that I'm not needed here, I think I'll go annoy Kyo," He said walking out of the room. Inora got up from the floor not really sure of what to do with herself.

"Do you, um, want something to drink… or something?" she asked, she knew that the usual thing was to ask if they wanted tea but she hated tea. 'I don't really know how to make it anyway, well I guess you just throw a bag in hot water?' she wondered.

"No, thank you," he said quietly. He looked dead tired, 'when was the last time he slept?' she wondered.

"Do you want some pillows and blankets so you can sleep for a while?" she asked. "You look really tired."

"No not yet, I need to talk to Shigure about something," he said standing up.

"Oh, well just follow Kyo's shouts," she said with a laugh and right on cue they heard Kyo yell from the porch.

"SHUT UP YA DAMN DOG! I AM NOT!" Kyo's voice bellowed through out the house. She heard Hatori sigh.

"Shigure really shouldn't do that to the poor kid," he said mostly to himself. He wondered out front, she followed to see what Shigure had done this time. When they got there Shigure was still singing a little song about Kyo being a pervert and Tohru was standing off to the side blushing. Kyo looked like he was going to punch someone and Inora had to think fast.

"Hey Kyo, You wanna take a walk with me?" she asked quickly. He froze and looked at her, she almost laughed at his surprised face.

"Uh, why?" he asked suspiciously. She couldn't help but think about how the people in his family must treat him if a simple thing like asking him on a walk put him on guard.

"Because silly, we live together and I still know almost nothing about you," she said making an effort to sound as welcoming as possible.

"Uh, ok?" he said slowly. He seemed to glance at the others for advice.

"Dude, it's just a walk. Stop being so paranoid," she said rolling her eyes. "Just let me grab my shoes." She went back inside and went to the front door to put on her shoes and walked back around the outside of the house. Shigure and Hatori were having a tense whispered conversation away from the others; Kyo still looked confused but was waiting for her.

"Ready?" he asked as she walked up to him, she noticed he was still totally on guard. She nodded and they took off down a path.

"So Kyo, your 17 right, almost done with school? Do you know what you want to do after you finish?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh, I'm gonna take over my masters dojo, hopefully," He said.

"Oh so you must be really close to your master huh?" she asked.

"Uh huh. He sorta raised me from when I was ten," he said staring off into space. She wasn't sure if he would mind telling her what happened to his parents.

"Um, you don't have to tell me but…" she started.

"What happened to my parents?" he finished for her. "Well if you really wanna know… Dad left mom and me because I'm the cat. And, uh… mom, well she kinda committed suicide when I was ten… because I'm the cat." They were quiet for a while after that, Inora felt horrible. 'But what do you say to something like that,' she thought franticly.

"Kyo I-" she started.

"Don't worry about it. So why did you wanna go on a walk when it's all dark and stuff?" he asked trying to change the subject.

"I like walks based on who I'm with, not what I see," she said simply.

"This one can't be very good then," he muttered.

"Kyo," she scolded. "You need to learn to like yourself more, and not be so hard on yourself. You know, you have the kind of personality that draws people to you, once you open up to them I mean. Like you just did to me," she beamed at him. "And you see? I like you already!" He stopped and stared at her as though he had never really seen her before.

"I've wanted to ask you something," he said still staring at her. "Did you really mean what you said about it not being the cat's fault?"

"Huh? Oh that! Yeah man, how the hell is that the cat's fault? He was given false information, if it was anyone's fault it's the rat's if you think about it," she said, she had almost forgotten about that part of the conversation

"Well it's said that it's the cat's fault for being stupid enough to believe the rat, and they thank the rat for getting rid of him." He said sadly. They were still standing looking at each other.

"No one should ever be blamed for believing in someone," she said softly. They looked at each other for a while longer; he looked like he was trying to figure out something to say to her, so she decided to break the silence. "Well we should start back don't you think?"

"Huh? Oh yeah." He said and they started back. "So your uncle is coming tonight?"

"Yup! I think you'll like him. I know he'll like you," she said cheerfully, from the tone in his voice she thought she knew where he was going.

"Did he raise you or is he just super protective?" he asked. She knew for sure now what he wanted to know.

"Well he didn't really raise me. I've just lived with him since I was 17 when my parents died," she said, she could see from the look on his face he wanted to know what happened but he didn't have the balls to ask, she couldn't blame him, but he had opened up to her so she should return the favor.

"They died in a car crash, I was in it too, and I was in the back seat so I guess I didn't get hit as hard?" she said and thought for a second. "I don't know, I've gone over it so many times in my mind wondering if there was something more I could have done for them. Maybe because I was younger I was able to pull myself out after the car was on fire, but if I had been stronger I wouldn't have passed out and I… could have pulled them out."

"You can't take the blame for that," he said quietly. "I'm sure there was nothing you could do." People had told her that before, and just like with Kyo none of them had been there, so they couldn't really know. And just like all of those other times she decided it was time to change the subject.

"So a master huh? What's his name?" she asked, he got the message.

"He's Kazuma," he said.

"Awesome name," she said, they could see the lights from the house now. "So I've always been interested in that kinda stuff. Do you think you could show me something sometime?"

"Oh, sure," he said brightly, she had never heard him sound so light. "Anytime you'd like! Well obviously it would be better in the day time." She smiled at him as they walked back into the house. Shigure observed them as they walked in still chatting happily.

"And how was your walk?" he asked.

"Great!" Inora said and looked around. "Where is everyone?"

"Yuki is studying, Tohru is working in the kitchen, Hatori is in the living room probably asleep by now," He said. She didn't know why but she walked off without another word into the living room. She didn't see anyone until she looked over the back of the couch; Hatori was stretched out on it with his hands resting lightly on his stomach. She was struck by how extraordinarily hot he was. She thought of something and ran out of the room; she came back with a pillow and a blanket. She set the blanket on the side of the couch for a moment and thought about how she should go about putting the pillow under his head. Finally she shrugged and gently lifted his head and slid the pillow under him. His eyes fluttered open.

"Sorry," she said. "I thought you might be more comfortable with a pillow, the arms of the couch aren't very soft." He watched her as she got the blanket spread out over him, she made sure to pull it all the way up to his shoulders.

"Thank you Inora," he said softly, she was stunned by the emotion in his voice. They looked into each others eyes for a long moment, and subconsciously she leaned forward a bit. She realized what she was doing and stood straight quickly. She tried to act as though nothing had happened, but she couldn't help but notice the slight blush on his cheeks. 'Dude were you seriously going to try and kiss him?' She asked herself.

"Well I'll let you get some sleep! Should I wake you when we need to go?" she asked, he nodded and she backed out of the room quickly. As soon as she was in the hallway she pressed her back against the wall and tried to slow her heartbeat down. She had already decided that she wasn't going to sleep before they went, so she went to go and bother Shigure.

One thirty rolled around and Shigure told her that the air port took about 20 minutes to get to. She tiptoed out into the living room 'Why are you creeping around? You have to wake him up anyway,' she thought. She walked over to the side of the couch and leaned over, willing him to wake up. Finally she reached over and put her hand on his shoulder and his eyes slid open.

"Sorry," she whispered, for some reason she felt the need to be quiet still. "But it's one thirty."

"Ok," he said simply, he stood up quickly and stretched out. She couldn't help but watch him, he was so tall.

"Thanks again for doing this!" she laughed. "Wow you must have to get up on sudden notice a lot."

"You have no idea. And you are more than welcome," he said smiling at her. They got in the car and drove down the quiet road. It was a quiet drive, they were both really tired. She started worrying that he was going to fall asleep, but she couldn't think of anything to say to him. When she saw the airport ahead she finally broke the silence.

"So are you going to come in, or do you want to wait in the loading zone?" she asked.

"Oh," he thought for a moment. "Actually I think I'll go in." they got a parking spot and made their way through the air port. They checked the times and Dan's flight was right on time, so they made their way to where he was supposed to come out and waited.

"So what's your uncle's name?" Hatori asked.

"Oh, it's Daniel. People usually call him Dan though," she said.

"What does he look like," he asked scanning the crowd coming out.

"A lot like me actually, he has blond hair and blue eyes, the same color as mine. He's about 6'3 and he's younger than you might be thinking, he's only 27."

"And he raised you from a certain age?" he asked looking back at her. She really didn't feel like explaining twice in one night so she tried to think of a response that wouldn't bring up any more questions. She had just opened her mouth when she hard a familiar voice.

"INORA" Dan bellowed through the terminal. She looked to see her uncle running towards her, before she knew it she was in a huge bear hug.

"Dan it's so good to see you," she said once he had set her back down.

"Same here," he said looking her over. "Well I think you lost some weight but you look healthy enough."

"I'm glad you approve," she said rolling her eyes. "Oh, Dan this is-"

"Is this that 'sugar ray'?" he asked in a dangerous tone, he didn't wait for an answer. He drew his fist back and threw it towards Hatori's face; she didn't have time to do anything but watch in horror. But her horror turned to surprise; Hatori grabbed Dan's wrist and twisted his arm around. Dan was forced to turn or get his arm dislocated, Hatori kept a hold of his wrist so Dan was trapped facing away from him with his arm twisted up behind his back. Inora took a second to recover but knew exactly what to say.

"No Dan, this is Hatori Sohma. He's the family doctor and he was nice enough to help me out tonight," she said trying to make him a guilty as possible.

"Oh my God. I'm sorry man I thought you were that other guy," he said, people were starting to stare at them. Inora told Hatori what Dan had said and Hatori let him go immediately.

"That's ok," Hatori said with a smile. "I often want to punch him."

"Oh and Dan," she said after she translated what Hatori said, "it's Shigure not 'sugar ray'. You're staying in his house so you should at least get the name right."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight: Proof**

(A/N): So I decided that even Dan is gonna have (these). So anything in (these) they're saying in English. I think that's a little simpler, again if anyone has a problem with that let me know and I can try to work something else out! :) ( ) =English

Dan was quiet the whole time they were waiting for his bags and going out to the car. Inora knew that he felt bad, but mostly embarrassed, for trying to punch Hatori. Hatori had said several times that he understood why he would want to punch Shigure and that he didn't blame Dan in the least. Inora was a little less forgiving. Who was he to say who she could and couldn't be with? She was 20 now, that wasn't his place, and she made sure to make him feel as guilty as possible. Inora was the first to break the silence as they got into the car.

"Hatori it's four in the morning, are you sure you're ok to drive? You look really tired," she said looking at his drooping eyelids.

"I'll be fine it's not that far," he said after a big yawn.

"Right," Inora said unconvinced. As they made their way back to Shigure's house Inora couldn't help but notice all of the mistakes Hatori was making in his driving. She thought it could just be that she was paying more attention now, but she didn't remember him swerving as much on the ride there as he was now. She kept her eyes glued to the road and when they were about five miles away from the house the car started going into the oncoming lane. She kept her mouth shut at first hoping he would correct it himself, she didn't want to be an annoying backseat driver, but she broke once the car was halfway over the line.

"Hatori?" she asked trying to still sound calm, she looked over at him. His head had slumped backwards and his hands had fallen into his lap. "HATORI! DAMN IT, WAKE UP!"

"Unh," he grunted, still not awake, they were now fully in the other lane. She did the only thing she could think of; she reached over and slapped him in the face, hard. He jerked awake and immediately grabbed the steering wheel and stomped on the breaks. They all jerked forward and Inora would have hit her head on the dashboard if her hands hadn't slapped against it first.

"Your fine huh?" she asked him sarcastically.

"(What the hell was that?)" Dan asked sounding confused; Inora realized that she was the only one that had been awake in the car.

"(Hatori fell asleep, we're lucky there's no one else out at this time of night,)" she explained. She got out of the car and walked around the front to the driver's side and opened the door. Hatori stared at her blankly for a few moments, and she rolled her eyes at him. She smiled in an effort to look like she didn't blame him, and said, "Get out, your too tired."

"Maybe I should get on the right side of the road before I walk and wake myself up," he said, he sounded very calm for what had just happened.

"No, no, no," she said shaking her head. "I'm not asking you to walk around to wake up. I'm asking you to walk to the passenger's seat so I can drive."

"Do you have a license?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

"Well not from Japan," she said with a wink. "Don't worry about it; I know the way from here. Plus I already figured out your traffic symbols, I don't have to be able to read them." He seemed very unsure but he got out of the car anyway and stretched.

"If you're sure," he said quietly and walked over and got in the passengers seat. She got in the drivers seat and smiled at him.

"You worry too much," she said with a flirty wink. 'What's with me and winking all of the sudden,' she asked herself. "I'm the best driver you've ever seen. See? Dan's already passing out again." Hatori glanced in the back to see Dan perfectly at ease with the new driving situation, with his eyes already closing lazily again.

"Ok, I trust you," he said smiling back at her.

"Good," she said and put the car in drive. She got back on her side of the road began to take the curvy road at a much faster pace than Hatori had. She knew that he could have probably gone the rest of the way after what had just happened, but she wasn't going to take that chance seeing as she had been more awake than him in the first place. She saw him visibly relax as she took the sharp turns with ease.

"I thought you were just exaggerating," he said watching her.

"About what," she asked blushing when she glanced over and saw him staring at her.

"About being the best driver I have ever seen," He explained.

"Oh, well I was exaggerating," she said blushing even more.

"I didn't notice you had been going fifteen over the speed limit until I just looked. I'd say that's a pretty good sign that you're a good driver," he said with a smile.

"Isn't me going over the speed limit a sign that I'm a bad driver?" she asked glancing at him again, he was still staring at her.

"Depends on how you look at it," he said simply. She pulled up to Shigure's house and turned to nudge Dan's knee.

"(Dan we're here. You're gonna be in the living room for now at least, they have it set up already,)" She said as he woke up.

"(Well this is a nice house at least,)" he said looking out of the window. She rolled her eyes; she hoped his whole trip wouldn't consist of him analyzing everything about their life. She looked back at Hatori.

"I am not going to let you drive home. You are sleeping here," she said and got out of the car to help Dan with his bags.

"I can't stay here, Akito would be angry if he found out I wasn't within earshot for a whole night," he said quietly.

"Forget Akito," she said. "Your safety is way more important than that (bastard)." He stared at her with an odd look that she couldn't quite place; she decided that he must be afraid of Akito. She didn't blame him; most of the family seemed to be afraid of him. "Look, just tell him it was my fault. It doesn't matter as much if he's angry at me right?" she said putting on a fake smile, she had to admit she was a little scared of Akito too, she didn't want her brain messed with.

"I wouldn't do that," he said softly with the same odd look. "But I'm sure he'll forgive it this once given the circumstances."

"Good," she said beaming at him; she knew he didn't really think that. "I thought for a moment I was going to have to kidnap you!" They both laughed and went inside with Dan following them looking suspicious; Inora thought that she should explain before he tried to punch anyone again.

"(I convinced him to stay the night here. He'll probably crash on the couch in the living room with you ok?)" she asked.

"(That's good; I can keep my eye on him then. So where is this…um, Shigure?)" He asked looking around him as though he thought Shigure was hiding behind a plant. 'Well at least he tried to get the name right this time,' she thought.

"(He's in bed man; it's four thirty in the morning!)" she said laughing at him. He grunted at her as they set his things down in the living room. Someone, probably Tohru, had put away the blanket and pillow Hatori had used earlier so Inora went and got them out again. When she came back Hatori and Dan were sitting on the couch in an awkward silence.

"Oh Inora, can you ask your uncle if he would like the couch?" Hatori asked.

"(Dan, Hatori wants to know if you want the couch,)" She said with a sigh, now she knew how Hatsu felt.

"(No, I'm good with the floor,)" he said smiling at Hatori. She relayed the message as she started to make Hatori's bed for him. She really didn't notice what she was doing until Hatori grabbed her hand and made her look at him.

"Thank you," he said softly, looking into her eyes. She felt the heat creep up on her face as she heard the emotion in his voice. 'God, I wish I could control my blushing better,' she thought franticly. Hatori let go of her hand and she glanced over to see that Dan was looking in his suitcase and had thankfully missed their moment. Suddenly she became very confused, 'That can't be right,' she thought. She pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind for the time being.

"No problem. Is there anything else you need?" she asked beaming at him, he simply shook his head, she looked over at Dan who had found his toothbrush. "(Anything else you need Dan?)"

"(Just need to know where the bathroom is,)" he said looking around.

"(Down that Hallway to the right,)" she said pointing to a doorway. "(So I'll see you in the morning then, night!)" She said and looked at Hatori and told him the same thing.

"Good night Inora," He said smiling at her. She backed out of the room and practically ran upstairs. She didn't know how long she could keep her act up around Hatori, the act being not acting like some lovesick school girl. She knew herself, she was entirely capable of doing the whole 'not speaking and trying to blend into a wall' act that 13 year olds do around their crushes. It was worse than that though, he wasn't a crush, he was something more. She wasn't stupid enough to believe that it was love but it was defiantly something.

She climbed into the bed as softly as she could so she wouldn't wake Tohru. As soon as her head hit the pillow she knew that she wouldn't be able to sleep, her mind was too full. Her mind seemed to be having a battle.

Could Hatori like me?

_Why would he?_

The way he looks at me is… odd.

_Maybe he just thinks you're odd._

What about the almost kiss yesterday? He didn't pull away…

_You probably just surprised him._

But what about the way we stare at each other?

_He probably just stared__ at you because you were staring at him. Of course that would creep him out._

She thought about it the rest of the night but never came up with an answer. She knew she kept coming up with counterpoints because she didn't want to get her hopes up just to have them crushed. That didn't mean that they weren't valid points though. She glanced out of the window and saw that the sky was turning grey; she decided to give up on sleeping and go watch the sun rise.

When she climbed the ladder and got up on the roof it took her longer then it should have to notice that there was another figure up there. When she did notice him she almost fell of the roof in her surprise.

"Kyo," she said once she had caught her breath. "What the hell are you doing up here?"

"Well I was sleeping," he said sounding grumpy, as he stretched out.

"Oh sorry, I didn't know you were asleep," she said walking over and sitting beside him.

"Why are you up here?" he asked.

"I couldn't sleep. Is there some reason you're sleeping on the roof?" she asked.

"I couldn't sleep either so I came up here to think, I finally got tired enough. Why couldn't you sleep?" he asked sitting up to look at her.

"Well why couldn't you sleep?" she asked raising an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah, never mind," they both said at the same time and laughed. They sat together and watched the sun rise; they talked about anything and everything like favorite music, books, and even color. They never talked about real things like what their dreams were, or what caused them pain. Inora didn't mind, she was just happy to talk to someone at that moment and actually loved that it was so light. 'There may be a time when we can really talk to each other again like last night. But we both have issues so for now it's good to get them off our minds for a while,' she thought.

"We should probably head in don't you think?" she asked him as voices drifted up to them. He nodded at her and they made their way back down the ladder, when they got inside Inora immediately wished that she had stayed up on the roof. Dan, having found out which one Shigure was, had him pushed up against a wall. Shigure was trying to reason with him but of course Dan couldn't understand him.

"(YOU DON'T TOUCH HER! YOU GOT ME?)" Dan was screaming in Shigure's face. Shigure had his hands up in front of his face trying to protect it.

"I didn't do anything!" he kept whining over and over. Inora rolled her eyes and gave a huge sigh.

"(Dan let him go,)" she made an effort to sound calm.

"(IS THIS THAT SHIGURE?)" he screamed at her, 'at least he waited to know for sure before he started throwing punches again,' she thought. She looked around the room; Tohru was standing about four feet from the pair with her hand slightly outstretched as if she was trying to figure out how to stop them. Hatori and Yuki were sitting calmly at the table with their tea, they actually looked bored. Kyo had left Inora's side and went to sit at the table; he, however, looked more interested then Hatori and Yuki.

"(Yes it's Shigure but you don't have any reason to hit him,)" she said as she slumped down at the table with the others.

"(Oh don't I?)" he asked in a dangerous tone.

"(No you don't. Think about it, do you even have any proof that I am dating him? No you don't. And even if you did, is it your place to say who I can and can't date? No it isn't,)" she reasoned. He stared at her with his eyes bugging out a little, finally he slowly let go of his grip on Shigure. Shigure promptly scurried out of the room as soon as Dan's grip was loose enough.

"(I may not have proof now but believe me I will get some,)" he said glowering at the floor, and she smiled at his weird since of honor.

"(Well sit down and I'll introduce you to everyone,)" she said, as he sat down she suddenly remembered something.

"(Oh! I was supposed to go to Hatsu's yesterday. I hope he's not too worried… anyway I'll call him and see if he wants to come over too,)" She said half to herself. She got up and called him, he did scold her a bit for not letting him know she wouldn't be there. But he forgave her as soon as she explained everything that had happened.

"Of course I want to meet him! I'll be right over," he said cheerfully. When she had hung up the phone she decided that she should try to coax Shigure out as well. She wandered back down the hallway to his study; she poked her head through the door and was dragged roughly inside. It had startled her enough that she let out a small scream; she was instantly silenced by someone's mouth crushing hers. Her brain took a second to recover but then she realized that it was Shigure. She got an odd feeling in the pit of her stomach but she pushed that to the back of her mind. She was about to push him off of her when there was a crash. Dan stood in the doorway; the crash had been him breaking the door as he threw it open.

"(There's your proof,)" he growled at Shigure. "(Now you're gonna die.)" The look on his face even scared Inora.

(A/N): Hmmm. Yeah sorry, I couldn't quite get this chapter to flow right. It sounds a bit choppy to me.

Also I thought that it was only fair to warn you that I am a Kana Hater. There may be some Verbal Kana bashing in later chapters… just so you know. ;)

And thanks to LyssaLoo62! Your reviews are the fuel for this chapter!


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine: Pain**

(A/N): Lol FOOTBALL SEASON! I think I really got into the spirit of the game! ; )

"Oh shit. Shigure, run," Inora hissed over her shoulder at Shigure.

"Only one problem with that," he said. 'Is he seriously still trying to make jokes?' she thought, rolling her eyes at his comment. Of course she knew there was only one way out of the room, and that Dan was blocking it. Dan only had eyes for Shigure, and she could use that to her advantage. She heard the others coming down the hallway so she knew she needed to act fast before they got in the way. She crouched down slightly with one hand on the ground so she looked like she was playing football, ready for Dan to say 'hike'. He didn't even notice her as he started forward, looking right over her head at Shigure, there was her opening.

She launched her self forward keeping low; her right shoulder collided with Dan's stomach right above his hips. He was taken completely off guard and she heard the air leave his lungs forcefully. She kept pushing forward, and she felt his feet leave the ground. They flew back out into the hallway, but they didn't stop there. They ended up crashing through the kitchen door on the other side of the hallway and skidding along the linoleum. The whole tackle took about two seconds.

His air had completely left him and she could hear him fighting hard to get it back. She quickly forgot about his gasping as she tried to get up, she let out a scream. A stabbing pain shot through her right arm, she gripped it with her other hand and noticed she couldn't really move it. She shoved the knuckles from her usable hand in her mouth to stop from screaming in pain again as she accidentally twitched her arm. She felt someone's hands gently grab her hand from her mouth; she hadn't noticed that she had squeezed her eyes shut too. She opened them to see Hatori kneeling beside her on the floor, his eyes looking anxious.

"It's going to be ok. It's your right arm?" he asked in a soothing voice, she nodded frantically. If she had tried to talk she knew she would start crying, and that was unacceptable. "Breathe," he reminded her, she hadn't even realized she had stopped breathing so she sucked in a huge breath. He smiled at her and winked, "That was an impressive tackle." She let out a hysterical sounding giggle that was half sobbing. She took a deep breath and was able to control herself again somehow.

What was really distracting her from the pain, as he gently probed her shoulder, was that he had winked at her. She suddenly realized what the feeling was that she had had when Shigure kissed her a minute ago, it was fear. A fear of being discovered, not by Dan, but by Hatori. She knew then that she could no longer have fun with Shigure while she felt like this about Hatori. She looked at his face, his black hair covering his left eye as always. Without thinking about it she reached out to brush his hair behind his ear so she could see the rest of his face. As soon as her hand touched the hair in front of his eye he flinched back, he gave her an apologetic smile.

"Sorry," he said softly. "My eye was injured a little more than a year ago. It still has the scars so I keep my hair over it." She nodded; she understood what it was like to be questioned about an injury all the time. It was horrible, especially when the injury was caused by something that also caused you an emotional wound. She saw from the look on his face that whatever had tore apart his eye had also torn apart his heart.

"I know exactly what you mean," she whispered, as he went back to prodding at her shoulder.

"It's dislocated, but I can take care of it right now. Let me give you something for the pain before I set it," he said and left to get his bag. When he came back he dug around in it for a moment and came out with a needle.

"No! Nononono," she said frantically, she even scooted about a foot back from him. He just looked confused and was about to say something before she cut him off. "Just do it, I don't need that." She felt pathetic, 'Am I seriously about to start hyperventilating?' she thought, she couldn't stop shaking her head.

"Inora, you are going to want this," he said trying to sound soothing, but she couldn't focus on anything besides the needle in his hand.

"(Inora stop being a baby it's just a little prick. What exactly did you do to your arm anyway?)" Dan asked looking a little confused; she had almost forgotten that he was there.

"(I, uh, dislocated my shoulder. He wants to numb it before he sets it,)" she explained.

"(Well that's what you get for tackling someone twice your size,)" he scolded.

"(What was I supposed to do? Let you kill him?)" she asked sarcastically.

"(I wasn't going to kill him,)" he said rolling his eyes. "(I was just going to… teach him a lesson.)"

"(Yeah, by beating him to death,)" she mumbled.

"(Whatever, just let him do his job,)" he said with a sigh. She looked back at Hatori who was still crouching on the ground with the needle. She tried to take a deep breath but it was way too shaky.

"No," she told him again. "I'm good, just do it."

"Inora, be reasonable," Hatori said softly.

"So do you want to do this here? Dan can hold me down if you need him to," she said ignoring his last statement. He sighed but answered her.

"Actually we need to go in another room. I, uh… need you to take off you shirt… so I can see," he said avoiding her eye contact.

"No problem," she said with a huge blush. "I'm sure Shigure probably ran away again so we can use his study." She got up, cradling her right arm, and walked back into the hallway and looked at the door to the study. "Actually I don't think this can close anymore, Tohru's room it is!" she said and went up the stairs. They got in the room and she tried to get out of her shirt but it was seriously painful and she still couldn't really use her right arm.

"Um, do you need help?" Hatori asked awkwardly from the doorway.

"If you wouldn't mind," She said blushing again. She felt butterflies in her stomach as he walked over and grabbed the bottom of her shirt. When he pulled it up she shuddered as his fingers brushed against her stomach. She wiggled her left arm out and he pulled it over her head so he could slide it down her right arm without it ever moving. She stood shirtless in front of him with her face burning, she knew that her blush wasn't leaving her face anytime soon.

"You forgot to tell Dan to come up here," he said trying very hard to sound professional, and was failing a little because he was blushing as well. She laughed nervously and went out into the hallway and to the top of the stairs, not really caring that she was just in her bra.

"(Yo Dan!)" she called down the stairs. "(We need you to hold me down up here!)" She turned to go back to the room when Yuki came out to see what the yelling was about. She saw his eyes widen as he took in her body and he quickly turned back into his room and closed the door. Hatori raised an eyebrow at her when she stumbled back into Tohru's room doubled over in laughter.

"Something funny?" he asked.

"I just… surprised Yuki is all," she said in between fits of giggles. Dan entered the room and immediately tried to look anywhere but at Inora. She rolled her eyes, 'He's had to change my diapers and give me baths while I was young,' she thought. 'I suppose it is different now that I have boobs.'

"(Can't someone else hold you down?)" he whined.

"(Sure! I'll go get Shigure,)" she said with an evil smile. He shut up right away and walked over to her.

"(We are going to talk about that later by the way. But for now what do I do?)" he grumbled. She looked to Hatori who seemed to be deciding something.

"What do you need us to do?" she said sounding more confident then she felt. He stared at her for a long time.

"Please let me give you the pain killer," he blurted out. His face was crumpled so it looked like he was the one in pain. She figured that being a doctor he really didn't like causing people pain whenever he could avoid it.

"Hatori," she said softly and waited for him to look at her again before she continued. "I'll be fine, believe me. Just do it quickly." He sighed, it was clear he wanted to argue more but he couldn't give her a shot against her will.

"Fine, don't say I didn't warn you. You're that afraid of needles?" he asked her and she nodded. "Well, have him hug you around the shoulders. The ball is below the socket so I'm going to have to pull out, then up, then in. you got that?" She nodded again and told Dan what was going to happen. He got behind her and wrapped his arms around her so that his right elbow was under her right arm and his left was going over her left shoulder. He grabbed his left forearm with his right hand so it wouldn't budge, and Inora gritted her teeth as Hatori grabbed her arm.

Inora let out a scream as she felt her arm rip out, get repositioned, and then forced back in with a sickening pop. It wasn't an earsplitting scream that girls often go to when they want sympathy, it was a tortured cry. She slumped forward in Dan's arms a little because her knees were shaking horribly. She hastily wiped away the one tear that had escaped her eye before anyone could see it. The door flew open and someone charged in and wrapped her in a bear hug before she could see who it was.

"Oh my God, Inora what happened? Are you ok?" The person's frantic voice asked. As soon as he had started talking she knew who it was and wrapped her arms around him. There was still a dull ache in her shoulder but it was just an echo of what it had been so it didn't bother her much.

"Hatsu calm down, I'm all right. You're a bit late on the worrying," she teased him. They hugged for a while longer until Hatsu suddenly became aware that she wasn't wearing a shirt.

"Uh, why aren't you wearing a shirt?" he asked as he let her go.

"Oh, Hatori needed to look at my shoulder, it was dislocated," she said looking down as if she needed to see for herself that she wasn't wearing a shirt. "Oh thank you," she said to Hatori as he silently handed her her shirt. She quickly slipped it on, trying to hide her wince as she rolled her shoulder to get her arm in.

"Let me go get you some _pills_ for the pain," Hatori said accenting 'pills' while giving her an exasperated look, she beamed at him.

"Thank you so much for your help. I owe you one," She told him quietly. "Actually I need to go find…" she glanced at Dan, "A certain dog," she finished. She didn't like calling them by their animals but she also didn't want to set Dan off again. She looked back at Hatori and thought for a second that he looked sad about her statement, but his face was blank the next second so she couldn't be sure. They walked out of the room where Dan and Hatsu were now introducing themselves. Inora had an idea that Dan would try to get information out of him but she trusted Hatsu not to blab… too much.

As they went down the hallway to the kitchen where Hatori left his bag they ran into Shigure who was cowering in his study again. He had poked his head out of the ruined doorway to see who was coming.

"Oh good, I thought you were Dan," Shigure said smiling at them. "Inora you could have given me more warning about your uncle's violent tendencies."

"I'll remember that next time," she muttered rolling her eyes.

"Show more gratitude _dog_," Hatori growled, Inora and Shigure both froze and stared at him. "He would have beaten you within an inch of your life if Inora hadn't stepped in."

"Ye- yes. That tackle was impressive," Shigure said slowly still slightly in shock from the tone in Hatori's voice.

"_Impressive?"_ Hatori spat at him. "This woman dislocated her shoulder in an effort to protect you, and I'm positive you didn't deserve that." He said harshly and stomped off into the kitchen. Inora and Shigure just stared at what was left of the doorway he had just gone through. All that kept going through Inora's mind was that he had called her a woman, most people she knew back home still called her 'girl'. She forced herself to focus again, 'well I've found Shigure, might as well get this over with,' she thought.

"Shigure can I talk to you for a moment?" she asked not waiting for an answer before brushing past him into his study.

"I'm sorry I kissed you at that moment alright? Just the fact that he was trying to stop it made it…exciting. I just couldn't help myself. And did you really dislocate you shoulder?" he asked with his goofy grin.

"It's not that, I can understand that. And yes I did," she said flashing him a smile but it slid off of her face as she tried to think of how to word her thoughts. "I think… we should stop."

"Stop the 'us' thing?" he asked studding her, she nodded slowly watching his face closely.

"I just… what?" she asked as his face split into a huge grin again.

"I was wondering how long it would take you to realize that your 'something better' had already come along," he said shrugging.

"I don't know what you mean," she said blushing, she actually did have an _idea_ of what he was getting at.

"Yes you do," he said softly. "Remember? We said that we would have fun until something better came along for either of us, or you left."

"Yeah I do but-" she started but he cut her off.

"He is an amazing man, treat him as such. I will give you one piece of advice though: be patient." He said leaving the room and her in confusion.

"Be patient? What the hell? Shigure wait," she got up to find him again but Hatori popped up in the doorway with a glass of water.

"I found them," he said softly. "Is everything ok?" he asked seeing the look on her face. She looked at him and couldn't help but smile.

"I am great… now," she said taking the pills from him and swallowing them easily.

"Are you sure?" he asked her slowly, she looked at him suspiciously.

"Yeah… why?" she asked raising her eyebrow.

"I'm sorry, I- I heard you," he admitted to the floor.

"And… how much did you hear?" she asked watching his face closely.

"Not much," he said quickly. "I just heard you say that you should stop, then I left."

"Oh, well thanks for being honest. It doesn't really matter that you heard that. But yes we broke up… not that we were really dating," she muttered the last part, and then she answered the question in his eyes before he could voice it. "You see Shigure and I… we… he just kinda dragged me along for his amusement." She had just realized that as she said it, he never felt anything for her.

"And that didn't bother you?" he asked quietly, she looked up at him.

"I just now realized it," she almost whispered, she saw anger flash through his eyes. He quickly turned and tried to make it out the door, but Inora grabbed his arm.

"You're going to protect him again?" he asked her.

"No- well, yeah. It's not his fault. I should have seen it- and actually I did, I guess I was in denial? In all honesty I never really felt anything for him either; the only difference is that I tried." She kept tripping over her words, his expression softened as he looked into her eyes and decided that she was telling the truth.

"Alright," he said quietly. "Why don't we go out and get some air." She nodded and had subtly moved her hand down his arm until she had his hand. As he moved to go back to the hallway she saw him glance down at it and she held her breath. He looked back up at her, she gave him a sheepish smile and let go, or she would have if he hadn't grabbed her hand back in his before it fell.

(A/N): Sooo i had an idea. If anyone wants to know what someone else was thinking in the story just leave a review with the character and the scene thats been on your mind! I'll do my best to write it from their point of view! ;)


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten: ****Ayame**

(A/N): Sorry! I meant for waaay more to happen in this chapter, but then I started to get carried away with the dialogue… it happens... right? So this is almost filler-ish. : (

Also I finished writing it then checked it over once before posting it so sorry if there are a ton of errors!

"How's your shoulder feeling?" Hatori asked Inora, she looked at him and saw his eyes full of concern.

"It's great! I can hardly feel it," she said beaming at him. "You did an amazing job!" She heard him mutter something under his breath and she sighed. "I know you're angry with me for not letting you numb my arm."

"You're right, I am" he said glaring at her, but she pouted at him and he melted instantly and smiled. They were sitting out on the porch, she could hardly believe it but their hands were still intertwined. They had been out there for at least an hour and neither one of them had even thought of making a move to take their hands back. She couldn't help but think about some of the things she had done with Shigure and none of them had felt nearly as intimate as this. She was also insanely glad that Dan had left her alone so she could have this moment with Hatori, 'if he saw us he might go on the war path again,' she thought. But just as she thought of that she heard his footsteps.

"(Hey,)" Dan yelled out the door, Inora wrenched her hand away from Hatori's. Dan hadn't seen anything fortunately. "(The phone is ringing and I think that Shigure guy is still in hiding…)"

"(I guess I can answer it,)" she said uncertainly, she still felt like she was just a guest there. She got up and jogged to the phone and grabbed it before it could stop ringing. 'What do I say?' she thought franticly as she put the phone up to her ear.

"Hello Sohma residence, Inora speaking," she decided on. There was silence on the other end for a moment then a cold voice she recognized instantly made her freeze.

"Inora," Akito said. "I guessed you learned Japanese pretty well. How is life treating you there?"

"F- fine," she whispered into the phone. She willed her voice to get stronger but even though the words he was saying were polite his voice sounded like he wanted to shove a baseball down her throat.

"Wonderful. Tell me, would my dear Hatori happen to be there?" he asked, sounding like he already knew the answer.

"Um, yeah," she said with a stronger voice this time. She started thinking of good reasons for him to be here, she decided on a half-truth-half-lie. "Shigure dislocated his shoulder early this morning then, because he kept whining, Hatori stayed to make sure he was ok."

"Ah I see," he said, relief washed over her, he sounded like he really believed her. "May I speak to him?"

"Y-yes, I'll go get him," she said quickly and ran out to the porch. Hatori raised an eyebrow when he saw the look on her face.

"Is everything ok?" he asked. She hadn't realized that she was that obvious, she made an effort to clear her expression.

"Oh, yeah. Akito is on the phone he wants to speak to you," she said trying to sound light.

"Shit," she heard him mutter under his breath.

"And I told him that you came over early this morning because Shigure dislocated his shoulder, and that he kept whining so you stayed," she said in a rush. "I hope that's ok… he didn't sound happy about you being gone so…" she trailed off.

"Yes, that was perfect thank you," he said going into the house. He came out a minute later with all of his things.

"See you later I guess?" she asked him as he put his suit jacket back on.

"I look forward to it," he said with a warm smile. He quickly went to his car and drove off; Inora couldn't help but feel a little empty with him gone. It was odd that he had only stayed one night but it seemed so right for him to be there.

"(He had to go home huh?)" Dan asked from behind her. "(That's good, I didn't like the way he looked at you.)"

"(Shut up Dan,)" she said but she couldn't keep the smile off of her face.

Inora, Dan, Hatsu and Shigure all sat down for lunch which Inora had been able to make with some help from Hatsu. Of course first Inora had to convince Dan that she and Shigure weren't doing anything sexual, 'Anymore,' she had added in her head. Then she had to convince Shigure that Dan was in fact not going to murder him. But once that was all settled they sat down to eat, but it was in an awkward silence.

"Shigure-" she started but he cut her off.

"You know I think you know me well enough to call me by my nickname," he said beaming at her. "Call me 'Gure."

"'Gure," she said slowly, testing it out. "I love it!"

"Me too, but forgive me what was it that you were going to ask?" he asked.

"Well I was just going to say that this is extremely awkward. Can't you help a bit?" she pleaded and an evil grin spread across his face.

"What we need is someone to lighten the mood," he said. He made it sound like it was a catch phrase. "I'll be right back." He ran out of the room with the same huge grin on his face, when he came back he simply sat back down like nothing had happened.

"What was that all about?" she asked.

"You'll see," he said in a sing-song voice. She opened her mouth to reply but then decided against it, she just shrugged instead. If he wanted to be a child about it then she would let him. They all began to discuss other things and she had completely forgotten that she was supposed to be waiting for something. They talked all afternoon, Tohru, Yuki and Kyo all came back from school together and set about the house doing different activates. The sun started to set and they could smell Tohru cooking something in the kitchen. Inora decided that that was her signal to help with diner.

She had just started to set the table when a blur of red and silver flashed into the room. She tried to focus on it but all she could really tell was that it was a person, a person that wouldn't stop twirling like they were in a ballet. She couldn't even tell if it was a man or a woman, they had long silver hair that reached past their waist, but their chest was still completely flat. She finally decided on it being a man when his incredibly loud voice rang through the room.

"'Gure, my love!" the man said. "I have missed you dearly and I simply could not wait to see you since hearing your voice!" Inora snorted at that, 'Really? He couldn't just say 'nice to see you'?' she thought.

"Aya!" Shigure sang as he sprang to his feet. "It has been far too long. My heart simply ached at our separation!" Inora stared at him, but in the end she couldn't help but giggle at the side of Shigure she had never seen. Sure they had joked around a lot but she had never seen him so… hyper. 'Ah so this is Ayame. Wait… how the hell did Hatori put up with these two all through school?' she thought.

"'Gure my love, where is the one I am to meet?" Ayame said, calming down a little.

"Ah yes. Aya, this is Inora," Shigure said gesturing over to her. "Inora this is Ayame Sohma." Inora stood up to shake his hand and Ayame bounded over to her, but instead of shaking her hand like a normal person he bowed deeply and kissed it. Inora couldn't stop the blush that crept up on her cheeks, 'but seriously,' she thought. 'Who does that anymore?' He straightened up and looked into her eyes, and she noticed that his eyes were yellow. 'Ah, he must be one of the Zodiacs,' she thought. They had never straight up told her that, but if he had been childhood friends with Shigure and Hatori… well she should have put it together before now. There was something else about him that she couldn't quite place…

"How exactly are you related to Yuki?" she asked studying his face hard. No matter how she looked at it all she could see was a grown up Yuki.

"Ah yes, you see, he's my younger brother," he said proudly.

"Oh, well that makes since," she said, she suddenly realized that her hand was still caught in his, and he showed no sign of giving it back either.

"Inora!" He suddenly boomed making her jump. "That is a lovely name! How did you come by it?"

"Uh… my parents…gave it to me?" she said slowly and wondered wildly how anyone else was supposed to get their name.

"AH HAHAHA," he laughed loudly. "Of course! But what I meant to ask was what does it mean?"

"Oh…um…Dan?" she looked over at him. "(You don't happen to know what my name means do you?)"

"(No,)" he said shortly. She saw that he was zeroed in on her hand still in Ayame's. She rolled her eyes at him, 'Geez, what the hell is his issue?' she thought.

"Well, that's a good question. I don't know," she said looking back at Ayame.

"Well why don't you ask them? I'm very curious of how they came by it, it's so beautiful" he said with a charming smile. 'Oh great,' she thought. 'I just barely met him; I don't really wanna go over this now.' But he asked and she couldn't just leave him hanging, she decided to just tell him all of the necessary facts in one go.

"Their dead," she started quietly and the smile slid right off of his face. "They died in a car crash when I was 17, Dan here is my uncle, he's looked after me ever since." She finished gesturing to him.

"I didn't know that," Shigure said quietly behind her.

"Why would you? It's not like you ever asked anything about me," she said coldly. She didn't mean to let that slip but ever since she had gotten there the only one to ask anything about her was Kyo. And from what she had seen of this family that was very odd. And it hurt a little that the man she had a sort-of-relationship with was more interested in learning things about Tohru then about her. Shigure just stood gazing at her with an expression she couldn't quite read.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Ayame said softly. Inora really wanted to move on from this.

"So Ayame!" She said in a loud cheerful voice trying to pick his mood back up. "I hear you went to school with Shigure and Hatori! You must have gotten into all sorts of trouble."

"Why of course not," he said, cheerful again. He, to her relief, let her hand go and went over to Shigure's side. "The three of us were to the absolute highest standards in our school!"

"And by 'we' he means Hatori," Shigure said with a laugh. "The faculty were always amazed that he hung around us."

"I'll bet," she said with a laugh. "So tell me what do you do for fun? Drinking? Dancing?"

"All of the above," Ayame said with an almost evil grin spreading across his face. "Why, would you like to go have some fun?"

"Always," she said grinning back. "Just one problem though."

"Oh? And what's that?" he asked.

"My uncle is… a little over protective," she said pointing at him, he already looked suspicious.

"No matter, Shigure can distract him and we can make a break for it," he said with a full out evil grin now. "That is, unless you chicken." She had just meant it as a joke at first but then she thought it over. She had been stuck in that place for almost a month now, and she could use the fresh air.

"Believe me I am no chicken," she said.

"She really isn't. I've never met such a sweet girl that just dives into things the way she does," Shigure said smiling at her seductively, like she didn't already know exactly what he was talking about.

"Oh but Shigure don't you wanna come?" she asked. Despite their little issues she knew they would have twice as much fun with him there. He thought about it for a moment then looked to Hatsu.

"Hatsu do you want to come?" he asked sweetly.

"Oooh, no. I know how you guys get, and I am far too old for that," he said then looked to Inora. "It's not that I don't trust your judgment but if you go just… watch yourself."

"Why Hatsu! Are you implying that we won't treat her properly?" Ayame huffed.

"Of course not, I just don't want her to get in over her head," Hatsu replied calmly.

"Well if you don't want to come would you mind…?" Shigure trailed off looking at Dan. Hatsu considered it for a long moment then sighed in defeat.

"Fine," he said. "But after you all leave I get to throw you under the bus and save myself."

"That's fair," Inora said brightly. "But can you at least try to stop him from wildly running about in the woods?"

"I'll try but no promises," he said quietly. Inora noticed that Dan was starting to look more and more suspicious.

"(Sorry Dan!)" she said quickly. "(They were just telling me a story from when they were younger.)"

"(Oh,)" he said and visibly relaxed.

"(So these two want to hear some of the music that I listen to,)" she wildly made up. "(So we'll be right back.)"

"(Ok whatever,)" Dan said quietly. She noticed that he looked really tired, but then she remembered about jet lag. 'With any luck he'll pass out and never notice that we were gone,' she thought.

"(This is my first time meeting Ayame so we'll be talking for quite a while. You can go to bed if you want,)" she said brightly.

"(Actually that's not a bad plan…sleep schedule is all messed up,)" he grumbled and got up. She winked at the three men as he walked out of the room.

"Actually Hatsu I think you're off the hook," she said and he looked relieved at that. "He's still suffering from jet lag so we just have to wait until he's asleep."

"So that means: Ayame, keep your voice down," Shigure said with a grin, and Ayame pouted.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter**** Eleven: Fun**

(A/N): Sooo… sorry about the short last chapter! And I hope nobody minds too much that I did this chapter from someone else's point of view. You will find it was kind of necessary. Lol

I creped into the living room to see if her uncle was asleep yet. I leaned around the back of the couch to see Dan snoring softly and sprawled all over the floor. I had wondered before now why he didn't sleep on the couch but as I looked at him I realized why, he was huge. He was too tall to fit on the couch length wise and his shoulders were too broad to fit comfortably width wise. As I looked at him for another second I realized that I should really thank Inora for saving me, he could have easily done permanent damage to me.

"He is out like a light," I informed Ayame as soon as I closed the living room door behind me. "Is she not done yet?"

"Well you can't blame her 'Gure," Aya said. "Trying to find something sexy to wear in Tohru's wardrobe is bound to be…difficult." Inora had run upstairs more then fifteen minutes ago to find something to wear. I had expected Aya to go help but I could see he was curious as to how she would do on her own. It took me two minutes to get ready; I grabbed a black button down shirt and some dark blue jeans. Aya looked as amazing as always so he didn't need to change a thing.

"Tohru's outfits are cute," I said in a gushing voice.

"That's just the problem, they're cute not sexy," aya said simply, and I had to agree with him on that. However, he hadn't been around that first day with Inora wearing one of Tohru's dresses, which was a sight to see. I was off in my own world thinking of a certain something she had done in that dress…I wonder if I can get her to wear it again? I was brought out of my scheming by footsteps on the stairs.

"Ok I think I hit the jack pot," Inora said from the hallway and she stepped into the dining room where we were. I felt my mouth fall open; she had on a red shirt that left her shoulders and chest bare. It would have just looked ok except for the fact that she was wearing a black corset type thing over it. She had on dark blue jeans that she had tucked into black high-heeled boots that went almost up to her knee. She looked… _amazing_. I tried to remember how to close my mouth.

"I turns out Tohru was a pirate for Halloween one year so I built off of this thing," she said grinning and tapping on the corset.

"I- you…" I stuttered, come on I need to be calmer than this! I cleared my throat and started again. "You look great!"

"Great?" Aya gushed. "She looks simply amazing!" And there it is, I see that spark in his eye that tells me that he is going to start a new pirate line in his store.

"Well you have the great Ayame's seal of approval!" I said brightly. "So I just checked before you came down, your uncle is passed out. Shall we go?"

"Yeah! But why would Ayame's…" she trailed off, and then I remembered that we never told her what aya did.

"Aya has his own clothing store! He designs and makes everything in it," I explained while Aya struck a pose.

"Oh that awesome! I'll have to go there someday," she said beaming at him. Sometimes she reminds me so much of Tohru, but most of the time I just wonder how the two kindest people I have ever met can be so drastically different. Ayame started going on about how, thanks to her, there was going to be a new pirate line in the store. We walked out into the night laughing and talking as though we were all old friends. We made it out of the woods surrounding my house when she suddenly stopped.

"Wait guys," she said then slapped her hand to her forehead. "Where exactly were you planning on going? I mean, I can't get into bars yet." I was confused for a moment but then I recalled a conversation that we had a few weeks ago.

"Oh because your not 21? Don't worry the drinking age here is 20," I said with a smile. I watched as that sunk in, her lips slowly pulled into a huge grin and she had an excited look in her eye. Without another word she started off down the street again with a determined walk. Oh I see, she already likes drinking, she just wasn't able to do it much because she was too young. I may have created a monster, I giggled at that.

About a half hour later we were entering my favorite bar, Inora still couldn't keep the smile off her face. I liked this place because there was a huge dance floor but it was around a corner from the bar so you could still hear yourself talk over the music. Plus they always played good music, and the DJ knew me, so I could get him to play pretty much whatever.

"Aya why don't you two go get us a table I'll be right back," I said. He nodded and led her away. I walked up to the DJ and pulled out Inora's MP3 player and handed it to him with his instructions, and of course some cash. He was very willing to help out; of course that smile could have been from the amount of money I gave him. I went back to the bar side to find them again when I did I also found a very handsome man making a bee line for Inora. I got there right after he did, but he was already working her.

"Damn girl! You have got to be the finest thing I have ever seen!" he said. I saw her eyebrow rise when he called her a 'thing', which made me smile. There was one thing even I made sure to do with her, treat her with respect, if I hadn't I know I would have gotten some black eyes. Of course if this man hadn't been drunk he would have just known that she wasn't someone to mess with, she gave off that vibe of a strong woman. But then she surprised me.

"You're not so bad yourself," she said simply.

"Would you care to dance?" he asked full of confidence.

"Sure!" she said and stood up. What the hell? I defiantly wasn't expecting that.

"Inora," I said quietly, the man had already started for the dance floor so he couldn't hear us. "Are you sure? I don't like the look in his eyes."

"Come on 'Gure it's just one dance," she said rolling her eyes. And with that she was gone; she had already caught up with the man who was too stupid to notice that she hadn't been there the whole time.

"'Gure-" Aya started but I cut him off.

"I'm just going to keep an eye on her," I said shortly and walked away with him saying something about me being protective of her. Well… I was, but aya would be too if he had known her for more then a day. But more then that, if he saw the way Hatori looked at her… he would stop at nothing to protect her. I walked over to the corner of the bar there the dancers started and I spotted them after a few seconds of searching. She kept trying to back up and he kept trying to grind on her, the sight made my skin crawl. I was about to go stop it when she had enough and turned to leave. He grabbed her wrist and spun her around and into his chest, she immediately took a step back and I caught the look in her eyes.

Man she looked pissed, and honestly really scary. I thought I had been on her bad side once before but I saw now that I had been wrong. He either missed that look or he was too drunk to think he was in any danger. Then there was the fact that he hadn't seen her take down a man twice her size. He stepped up too her again and started running his hands all over her. That did it. I made my way towards them but of course I couldn't go as fast as I wanted, I had to make sure I wasn't going to bump into any of the women. As I was walking she took another step back but instead of trying to leave again she pulled her right arm back and aimed her fist right at his nose. He stumbled backward clutching at his nose then finally fell on his ass.

"YOU BITCH!" he screamed as I finally reached her. I looked at her face to see if she was ok, she was giving him a glare that made me cower even though it wasn't aimed at me. Everyone had stopped dancing at his yell and the head bouncer came over to us.

"Ok guys, what happened?" he asked calmly. Inora was just as calm when she replied.

"He was getting a little handsy; I gave him two warnings then let him have it. And I also tried to leave twice before I punched him, he wouldn't let me," she said.

"That's true I saw it," I said quickly, she jumped a little, not realizing I had been there.

"Yeah I saw it too, I was about to send my man over to help," a woman said gesturing to a burly man beside her.

"Alright, alright," he said as other people began to agree. Without another word he grabbed the bleeding man from the floor and pulled him out to the front.

"Jerk," Inora said staring after them, and then she looked at me and smiled. "Let's get something to drink huh?" We made our way back over to Aya and sat down; I could tell that he had seen what happened because he was looking at Inora in a whole new way. Well, she may not know it be she just earned his respect. I ordered us some drinks, to my surprise she asked for whiskey, though I laughed when she also ordered a Diet Pepsi.

When the drinks got there my suspicions were confirmed, she had drank some hard stuff before. She took the shot no problem, no gag or scrunching of the face. The only sign of weakness was that she was obviously using the soda to get the taste out of her mouth.

"So," she said with a huge grin. "Are two good looking guys such as yourselves gonna let _that_ be my only dance tonight?" She was right that would suck if the only dance she had tonight was with that bastard. Plus I already had things set up.

"You are absolutely right. We wouldn't be good dates if we let that happen. Right Aya?" I asked looking at him and winking. I had told him what my plan was before we left and he gave me a knowing smile.

"Shall we all go together?" he asked her.

"That sounds awesome," she said then jumped up and started towards the dancers. Aya and I gave each other a smile, we were about to find out if this girl could really handle us. Also with the way Hatori looks at her… well it would be good if his friends got along with her right? That reminds me, I'll have to show Aya that later. As soon as I was in sight of the DJ I gave him a wave, I guessed he understood because he nodded at me and gave a thumbs up. We found a less crowded place and Inora immediately began to move her hips and bounce to the rhythm of the current song. Aya beamed at her and stepped up to her left side leaving me a place on her right. The song ended as I stepped up to her, Aya and I smiled as the DJ's voice rang through the bar.

"Alright! Tonight we have a special guest all the way from America! Her name is Inora, by the way give the girl her props for that punch!" he said clapping. The whole room burst into noise for her and she blushed a deep red. "Also I have a little treat for ya all in her Honor, one of her favorite songs: RL Burnside – Rollin' and Tumblin' Remix." Inora turned and looked at me with a huge blush still on her cheeks.

"'Gure," she said softly and went up on her toes and kissed my cheek, a far cry from what she would have done just a few days ago. No, now that I think about it, it had been more than a week. Ever since she met Hatori and they talked about that rose. He had let slip that he had seen her that day when he called and I wriggled the whole story out of him. Of course he wanted me to know in some way or else he would have just hung up on me. She started pulling away from me that day when she came in all wet, sure we kissed… a lot, but nothing more. And now that I think about it she had been asking me about age's right? Oh… clever girl. She just wanted to know how old Ha'ri was.

I became distracted as the first line in the song was echoed, they sounded like "(you gotta move)" whatever that meant. Inora squealed and started shaking her hips to the heavy beat. As the song went on more sounds were added, I noticed that it ended up having a country-like feel. Aya was getting into the song as much as she was; I listened to the man raspy voice singing and began to dance with them. As the song went on I decided that I loved it, then the song slowed and it sounded like there was a woman whispering over what sounded like a didgeridoo. Inora twirled her hips in a circle while revolving her body in the opposite direction. Aya and I stopped dancing to admire this move, the music picked back up and we all danced again.

When the song ended to the echoing of "(You gotta move)" again the room burst into applause. Particularly right next to us, I looked over and saw that a lot of people had stopped dancing to watch the three of us go at it. Inora blushed even more then before as people told her how amazing her dancing was. They were absolutely right, it was some of the best dancing I had ever seen, and Aya obviously agreed. People started to offer to buy her drinks and she accepted most of them. She was being smart though, she didn't take the ones that guys brought her directly. And when they gave her a choice she got nonalcoholic ones…sometimes. At about one in the morning, despite her trying to pace herself, she was drunk off her ass.

"I think we should call it a night huh?" I asked talking mostly to Aya who nodded in agreement.

"Do you know what I think?" Inora asked leaning closer to me then was necessary. "I think we should go see Hatori."

"Hatori?" Aya asked. "Why's that?" Damn it she is going to ruin my surprise if I don't think of something.

"Your right we should go get your hand checked on, I hadn't realized it was bothering you" I said smoothly, she didn't know what was going on because she was trying to make a square out of her straw, and failing. We left the bar a while later because no one wanted her to leave, she promised to 'come back for them' soon. As we made our way down the street she walked pretty ok but her heels were giving her a bit of a problem, Aya and I took turns being her fall guard. We weren't that far from the estate so we made it in no time, we tried not to draw too much attention as we picked our way to Hatori's. When we got there the lights inside were already out but we knocked anyway, after a minute Ha'ri popped his head out of the door frame. I had pulled Inora off to the side so all he would se was Aya.

"Hi Ha'ri," Aya said in his obnoxious voice. Hatori looked at him for a second then tried to slam the door shut.

"Go away," he said sounding angry. Aya caught the door before it could close.

"But Inora's hurt," Aya said. Perfect, he said exactly what I wanted him to say, it was as if he was reading my mind. I sat back to watch as Hatori did exactly what I expected him to do as well. As soon as the words were out of Aya's mouth Hatori's eyes widened so he looked halfway between shocked and scared. He threw open the door and darted out onto the porch looking around wildly.

"Where," he demanded. I looked at Aya who was staring at his friend with his mouth hanging open.

"Right here Ha'ri," I said calmly. "Don't worry it's just her hand." I saw him relax a little as he saw her, but his face was still full of concern. Aya came to stand by me, just like I was hoping he would, so he could still see Hatori's face.

"Oh my, what do we have here?" Aya asked so only I could hear. I smiled and winked at him as Hatori walked up to us, I was holding her upright.

"Hatori," she said in such a way that made his name sound like the most beautiful thing in the world, and that seeing him was all she would ever want from life. He froze at the sound, his eyes full of emotion. She reached out and placed her hand gently on his cheek, on the side that had been injured.

"I don't know what happened to your eye," she started quietly, then got louder. "But whoever would hurt such a warm and kind man deserves to burn in hell."

"Wha-" Hatori started but she cut him off.

"I'm sorry for whatever happened, I wish there was something I could do… I can see that it still hurts you…inside." She slid her hand off his face and down his chest; she rested it right over his heart. Everyone was silent for a long time, and Hatori just didn't seem to know how to deal with all of the emotion running through him. Inora started giggling.

"What is it," I asked.

"His face," she said and giggled again. "He looks so surprised! You know what? You are really cute." She told him, almost as if she was trying to get more of a response from him. And she did, he blushed furiously. "By the way I have to pee like no other."

"Oh, um-" Hatori stuttered, she didn't wait for him though she just walked into the house like she owned it.

"My, my, Ha'ri is that a blush?" Aya asked as soon as she was inside. Hatori touched his cheek where she had and ignored Aya's question. It took him a minute but then he was able to speak again.

"She been drinking, it's fairly obvious from what she's been saying even if I didn't smell it on her breath," he said with a glare at me.

"Don't blame me it was her idea," I said holding my hands up in surrender. He was about to say something when we heard her yell from inside.

"WERE THE (FUCK) IS THE BATHROOM!" she yelled sounding thoroughly pissed off. Ha'ri took a step towards the door when she yelled again. "Oh I found it, NEVERMIND!"

"Ok… so putting aside the drinking how did she hurt her hand?" Hatori asked glaring at me again. I told him the story about the man, making sure to put in how I was trying to get to her, and he got angrier. Thankfully he wasn't angry at me though, this was one of Hatori's rare seriously angry moments. I had maybe only seen this twice from him. He took a full five minutes to calm down and be able to talk again.

"Ok, putting that aside as well what about her uncle?" he asked.

"He's back at my place passed out," I said simply.

"Whatever, I'm going to check her hand," he muttered. I winked at Aya and we followed him in, but we bumped into him just on the other side of the door. I looked around his shoulder and saw why. It had been dark outside so Ha'ri hadn't been able to really see what Inora was wearing. Now, however, she stood in front of a mirror in the hallway right under a light. She was playing with her hair and the light bounced off of it to make it look golden, she looked like an angle. Well… an angle in slightly slutty clothing but still. While playing with her hair she noticed something wrong with her hand.

"Why does my hand feel funny?" she asked to no one in particular but Hatori was at her side in a flash. He gently took her hand and examined it closely, the whole time he was doing that she was staring at his face. I saw him relax even without seeing his face.

"It's just a sprain, I'll wrap it for you," he said warmly, she smiled at him and he led her into his office. Aya and I followed again and Hatori sighed.

"Don't you two have something better to do?" he asked.

"Not really," I said with a smile. "Why? Would you like some alone time?" he didn't respond to that which was no surprise. He gently wrapped her hand up, but by the time he was finished Inora was slumping forward, falling asleep. Hatori hadn't noticed so he froze when she rested her head on his chest while her chest was still a good six inches away from him.

"Awww," Aya gushed. "I wish I had a camera."

"Yeah we could replace the picture he has of Kana," I whispered so only Aya could hear and he snorted. Hatori was still ignoring us, we watched as he slowly wrapped his arms around her shoulders, gently stroking her hair. I started to really get the feeling that Aya and I shouldn't be here, Aya seemed to agree with me. We started to edge towards the door, but that just seemed to remind Hatori that we were there. He pulled his arms away from her and she whined a little from the movement.

"So what are you going to do now? You can't carry her with out transforming, and I can't get a car out without drawing attention…" he trailed of as Inora snuggled her face closer to his chest.

"Well…" Aya said with a grin slowly spreading on his face. "Slumber party!"

"Oh I love it!" I said clapping my hands.

"Gure, Aya," Inora mumbled from Ha'ri's chest. "Shut up." Early into the night Ayame had insisted that she call him 'Aya' and she loved it to no end. Hatori sighed at us but then looked back at Inora, it was clear he didn't want her to go even if she was just sleeping.

"I guess that's the only option, of course you guys could go and she could-" he stopped himself realizing who he was talking to but it was too late.

"Ha'ri you dirty man!" I gushed.

"We wouldn't dream to leave such a flower in your perverted hands!" Aya said sounding heroic. Hatori just sighed and leaned Inora away from him. He got on the side of her and lifted her off the table she had been sitting on. He made sure to hold her away from his body as he walked by us and down the hall to his room. When he came back a minute later, without Inora, he looked at us and ran his hand through his hair and sighed.

"You guys can have the guest room. I'll go sleep on the couch," he said and turned towards the living room.

"But Ha'ri, if your alone in the living room how will Aya and I make sure that you don't sneak into Inora's bed?" I asked with an evil grin.

"Shut up," Hatori said while Aya giggled.

(A/N): You see why I needed to do this from Shigure's POV? She was in a drunken stupor! Lol I think I might do the rest of the story in first person but I'm not sure… Let me know what you think!


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve: Fan Club**

Ouch. Wow my head hurts. And why is that? Oh right, because I'm an idiot and drank _way_ too much last night. I shoved my face further into my pillow to block out the light coming in from the window. Something's not quite right here and it took me a few seconds to figure it out. The light was coming from the wrong side of me and the bed seemed too spacious as well. That's weird, am I still drunk? No… my head hurts way too much for me not to be sober. I took a deep breath to try and clear my head but then I froze. What is that smell? It smells…good, I mean, really good. It's not exactly sweet but… I just can't describe it. Ok so putting aside that smell, it's time for me to be freaking out. I'm not in my room, so where am I?

I slid one eye open to see that the rest of the bed was empty, I raised my head a little and saw that the room I was in was empty as well. I rolled onto my back and the movement made me realize, to my utter relief, that I was still fully clothed. I took a deep breath in my relief and the scent washed over me again. God, I need to figure out whose bed this is and find out what kind of cologne they wear…or perfume. I sat up and examined the room to see if it would give me any clues. It was obvious that this person did alright for themselves but either they were extremely dull or they were never in here except to sleep. I slid out of the bed and stretched, already I wanted to be back in it, that was a seriously comfortable bed.

"Ok Inora," I said out loud. "What happened last night?" I stood still for a moment concentrating hard. Then little by little bits and pieces came back to me. Within a few minutes I had remembered most of the night, just not the end. Ok Shigure said that we should leave and I said that we should go… Oh my God. It all came back to me. I'm at Hatori's house and I just slept in Hatori's room, in Hatori's bed! Wow, that is…fucking amazing. Too bad he wasn't in it with me…no I shouldn't think like that about him. The last thing I really remember was Hatori wrapping up my hand, then I fell asleep against…his…chest. Wow, that's even more amazing.

Wait there was something else though, Aya and 'Gure's voices kept waking me up. Then I was lifted up… there was that smell. Oh my God he carried me to his bed too! I couldn't help but jump around for a second like a school girl. As I jumped around I noticed that someone had taken off my shoes, and as I looked down I saw that they also took off the corset thing. Hatori must have done that as well, I could feel the blush on my cheeks. Now that I was paying attention I could hear voices in the house, I opened the door to find myself at the end of a hall. The voices were coming out of what appeared to be the living room at the far end of the hall, right next to the front door. As I walked down the hallway and saw some of the other rooms I noticed that everything was very neat but dull. He needs more color in here. I poked my head around the doorway to the living room.

"Ah Inora, nice of you to finally join us," 'Gure said with a huge grin. I stuck my tongue out at him and plopped down on the couch next to Aya.

"Whatever," I said shrugging. "Hatori… thank you so much for your help last night."

"Oh so you remember?" he asked with a slight blush. I don't know why but it seemed to be a good idea to lie.

"Not really," I said with a sheepish smile. "But I assume you're the one that wrapped my hand?"

"Oh," he looked a little relieved. "Yes I did, it's just sprained so-" he cut off when the phone rang. "Excuse me." he got up and answered the phone in another room.

"You really don't remember?" Aya asked me.

"Well… actually I do remember most of it," I admitted. "It just seems like it would make him feel better if I didn't."

"I think your right, for the most part," 'Gure said quietly. But he didn't have a chance to explain what he meant because Hatori dashed into the room.

"You need to get her out of here," he said urgently. "Akito's coming."

"Why on earth would he come here? I thought you always went to him," Aya asked, but even with his questions he was still getting ready to leave.

"I tried to say I would go there but he insisted, I think he was tipped off," Hatori said quickly.

"Wait," Shigure said in a voice that made everyone freeze. "If Akito was told that someone was here we'll just sneak Inora out and Aya and I will stay."

"Your right," Hatori said simply and ran into the kitchen. He came back a minute later with a piece of paper that he shoved at me. I looked over it for a second and saw that it was a map.

"Right," I said and dashed back to his room and slipped my boots on along with the corset. I knew from the map that I was going to have to crawl through some plant life so I didn't want to have to carry anything. I ran back down the hall and stopped by the front door for a second, I gave the three of them a small wave before opening the door.

"Be careful, try not to be seen," Hatori said quietly.

"I think I figured that much out on my own," I said with a grin. "You will have to explain to me later why this is such a big deal." And with that I darted out the door.

As soon as I was outside I heard voices coming down the path, I jumped behind a bush that was by his front door. I held my breath as Akito and some woman stood a foot away from me and knocked on the door.

"Akito-" Hatori started but was cut off as Akito simply walked by him into the house. I saw Hatori poke his head out of the door for a second, probably to see where I had gone to. I finally let myself breath again as the door closed with a thud. Careful not to make too much noise I got up and ran down his path, as soon as I was out of sight of that house I crouched down behind another bush by a fence to study the map. I saw that I just had to get to the other side of this fence and go across what looked like a garden to reach the exit. It also had some writing on it, but I can just speak the language, not read it. I just shrugged and hoped that it wasn't too important.

The fence was a problem, it was taller then my head, I can't jump or pull myself up that far. This bush was pretty big and the fence was the kind that had boards running vertical to make a flat surface. I grabbed one of the boards at the bottom and pulled out; it pulled out easily and swung just from the nail on the top. I did the same to the boards on either side of it until there was a gap just big enough for me to fit through. As I stepped on the other side I let the boards swing back into place, they looked perfect. On the other side was a garden, but there was a house with a lot of windows facing it. It looked to me like someone important lived there.

The garden, thankfully, seemed to be made up of bushes so I was able to crawl under them without a chance of being seen. Unless of course someone was walking through the garden, which they weren't because it had stared to rain. Of course it would rain right now, why should the weather like me? I sighed but then I saw the tree that I was supposed to be heading for, it was right against the outer wall. The tree had been drawn on the map but not the exit. All of the arrows pointed to it, however, so there had to be some way out over there. Ah, that's what all this writing is for, awesome. There was some open space between the bush I was in and the tree, I popped my head over the bush to glance around quickly. There wasn't a soul anywhere so I dashed over and practically dove behind the tree.

"Ah here we go," I said out loud. There was a hole in the wall that was blocked on the other side by a tree as well. I slipped out of the hole and took a peek around on the other side to make sure no one would see me come out of a tree. It was starting to rain harder so everybody had deserted the street. Why does it always rain on my way home? I laughed at the thought as I walked quickly back home. Then another thought occurred to me, I was calling it 'home'. I didn't want to originally but now the thought of it made me smile. The walk back seemed to take no time at all.

"Hey," I called into the house, a huge grin spread across my face as I said my next sentence. "I'm home!"

Nothing. Well that's disappointing; I had been expecting a 'welcome home' for my first time saying that. Then I laughed at myself when I realized that they were all at school. Wait what about Dan, where is he? I went into the living room to see if he was still asleep when I found a piece of paper on the couch.

_Inora,_

_ I guess you're still asleep, I went for a walk in the woods I'll be back in a while._

_-Dan_

I sighed in relief, he didn't suspect a thing. Man I seem to be having a bit of a lucky streak lately. I went up stares to shower and change my clothes. After I warmed up I got something to eat from the kitchen and sat down on the couch. I heard the door open and close and Shigure wandered in.

"So? How did it go?" I asked.

"Fine Akito was a little suspicious at first but I think we won him over," he said with a tired smile. "By the way Aya says he hopes to see you soon. I think he likes you a lot."

"Oh well that's great, he is a really fun guy," I said with a grin. "So… would you mind explaining what happened?"

"Right, I keep forgetting that you don't know," he said, moving to sit next to her on the couch. "Ok so you know that Hatori injured his eye, what you don't know is that he is almost blind in that eye. You see Hatori was in love once, her name was Kana. She came to be his assistant and they hit it off right away, eventually they fell in love. At one point in time she transformed him, but she just laughed and said that she loved him more then ever. You can imagine how odd it would be if your boyfriend wouldn't hug you and you didn't know why. They became engaged a while after that and Ha'ri went to Akito to ask for permission, well you know how Akito is. He got extremely angry and threw a vase into Hatori's face; it broke and dug into his eye. Akito began to scream that it was all Kana's fault, and she took it to heart.

"Her grief consumed her and anytime Ha'ri would try to comfort her… she would just get worse. Collapsing on the floor, sobbing. Akito kept whispering in his ear that she would really rather just forget. He tried to not believe him until Kana said the same thing in one of her worse moments. So Hatori erased him from her mind, the memories that they shared together. She left with no worries and Ha'ri… was left alone to suffer."

"I…" I tried to say something, anything, but my voice wouldn't work. Shigure seemed to understand.

"He just doesn't want you to go through anything like that," he said quietly. He got up and wandered to his study. With him gone I let myself go, tears spilling down my face. I brought my knees up to my chest and buried my face in them to muffle my sobs. How could anyone do that to Hatori? What was odd was that I wasn't all that angry at Akito, but I was livid at this Kana bitch. It took me about five minutes to finally calm down; once I had I hastily wiped away the last of my tears.

I heard the door slam shut and the sounds of someone roughly taking off their shoes. Yuki walked into the living room looking seriously pissed off. I didn't really know what to do, Yuki was the only person I couldn't get to open up to me, and I had gotten kind of tired of trying. So I just looked at him and gave a rather lame "welcome home." He just stared at me, eyes wide, like he was looking for something. I stared back for about three seconds before I realized what it was. He finally wanted to really talk to me, well that's good news.

"Come here," I said patting the seat next to me. "You wanna tell me what happened today?" he needed no more encouragement. He practically ran over to my side and was in a rant before he had completely sat down.

"It's those damn fan club girls! I used to be able to ignore them unless they were trying to ask me out. But then again not really because they were always giggling in doorways of the room I was in, or hiding around a corner to take my picture! But they were always focused on me and it didn't annoy anyone else so I could deal with it. But now? No. Now they're trying to go after Miss Honda because she hangs around me so much. They even go after her friends! They try to come up with these weird plans to get rid of them. These girls are crazy I swear, there's no stopping them!"

He fell into silence. My mouth fell open; I had never heard him talk so much. I mentally shook myself and immediately started thinking of what I could do for him. "How often do they ask you out?"

He seemed surprised at my question but answered, "Usually about two times a week."

"Hmmm. Well… you could start telling people you have a girlfriend. No… no, that wouldn't work. They sound too fanatical, like they would need more proof." I continued to think in silence. Suddenly it came to me and I gave him a wicked grin. "So they always follow you around right? Let's say, especially right after school?"

He nodded looking confused. "That's actually exactly when they're the worst." I smiled at him again then stood up.

"Well let me sleep on it. I'm positive I can come up with something." I left him there still seriously confused and walked down the hall to Shigure's study. I couldn't help but giggle at my plan when I walked in. Shigure sat up and looked at me curiously.

"'Gure!" I drew out his name so it was clear that I wanted something from him. "I need your help with something tomorrow. Do you mind?"

"Depends on what it is." He sounded suspicious.

"I'm gonna help Yuki with some girl problems. I just need you to walk me to their school; I have no clue where it is."

He was very interested now. "Girl problems?"

"His fan club is starting to piss him off," I said simply.

"Ahh yes, the fan club. Ha'ri, Aya and I had one in school as well, which is really saying something because we went to an all male school." He looked off into the distance thinking about the old days. "Sure I'll take you there. Are you going tell me what your plan is?"

"Nope!" I said with an evil grin, then turned and walked up to my room.

* * *

><p>The next day at school Yuki had forgotten all about the conversation he had had with Inora. School was just letting out and for once he got to go straight home. He walked out of the front of the school and, like usual, there were girls everywhere. If it didn't annoy him so much he probably would have laughed. They were seriously hiding behind corners, trees, garbage cans, bushes and just other groups of people. He sighed but other then that showed no signs of having seen them.<p>

* * *

><p>Over by the gates I stood with Shigure. "Wow," I said. "This is worse then I thought."<p>

"Poor boy, he's never been one to crave attention, especially not on this level. I on the other hand…well." He chuckled to himself.

"Yeah, yeah. I know you're an attention whore." I winked at him then walked forward. I felt slightly nervous, I wasn't expecting there to be so many people. But I guess this is what we want if we're gonna to make the huge impact we need. Or so I had to keep reminding myself as I continued to walk towards him. As soon as I knew he was within ear shot I stopped and but on a big show. I was already getting a lot of looks, if my blond hair and blue eyes didn't draw enough attention, what I was wearing defiantly would. I had on very low riding jeans and a very short red tank top that gripped my body tightly resulting in about three inches of midsection showing. I completed the 'hot bad-girl' look with black high-heeled boots. I stood on my tip toes and waved my hand enthusiastically above my head.

"Hey Yuki!" I shouted in my most girlish voice possible. He looked up and I watched his face turn from confusion to realization then finally settle on vague suspicion. He gave me a tentative wave back. Well that was no good, if this is going to have the desired effect he is going to have to do some better acting. I walked towards him again, resisting the urge to roll my eyes.

"I couldn't wait for you to come home, so I came to get you sweetie!" I had everyone's complete attention now. I could hear the whispers run through the crowd when I said 'home'. I heard things like "They live together?" "Wow way to go prince!" and "She did not just say that!" finally when I was a foot away I grabbed his hand. I took another half step and began to lean forward, the muttering stopped instantly. I barely kept from laughing when I saw that he looked kind of afraid. I slid my eyes closed when our lips meet. I moved mine warmly against his but he seemed to be frozen.

"Come on. Work with me Yuki," I whispered desperately. Finally he kissed me back very hesitantly; I immediately adjusted the speed of my lips to match his.

He seemed to loose himself. He brought his hand up and wove it into my hair; then grabbed at the back of my neck to pull me closer. That caught me off guard. Mutterings started up again though now louder. "Whoa! Go Prince!" "The witch obviously cast some sort of spell on him!" "That bitch thinks she cam have him? She's dead wrong." Yuki showed no signs of stopping, so I had to. But I had to collect all of my thoughts first so I wouldn't blow the whole operation. I tugged my head back ever so slightly. He got the message loud and clear; he dropped his hand and immediately froze up again. This time I did roll my eyes but our lips were still connected so no one would notice. I guess freezing is better then running away with his hands over his head.

"Just act as normal as possible," I whispered into his lips. I pulled away from his face and cast a judging eye at all of the people standing around shamelessly staring at the two of us. "Don't you people have something better to do with your lives?" I kept Yuki's hand in mine and led him to the gates.

Shigure was still waiting there; as we walked up he gave us a round of applause. "Well done! I couldn't have done it better myself!"

"I think it would have caused a whole new batch of problems for Yuki if you had done that," I said rolling my eyes at him.

"Well yes, but it would have been interesting. However, I meant I couldn't have come up with a better plan."

"Uh huh. Yuki are you ok?" I asked giving his hand a little squeeze.

"Huh? Oh yes, I'm fine." He was staring at his feet.

"Right," I said unconvinced. "Well let's go home." I dropped his hand once we were out of view of most of the people.

"Yes, I have some phone calls to make!" Shigure said in a sing song voice. Yuki didn't notice, so I decided to stand up for him.

"'Gure don't do that to the poor guy. You _know_ Aya will freak out."

"Sorry! It has to be done!" he said. I rolled my eyes at him but left it because Yuki was still acting weird. I became more concerned as time went on, he was silent the entire walk home and then through dinner. What really worried me was when he didn't utter a word as Shigure told Aya and Hatori what happened over a three way phone call.

"Oh Aya I don't think there's any need for tha—uh… Hello?" Shigure turned to give me and Yuki a look. I knew what that meant, but Yuki was still in his own world, Ayame was coming. "Ha'ri? Are you still here?" pause "I'm sure Yuki would appreciate it. Thank you." He hung up and looked at us again, or more at me because Yuki was just gone.

"Aya's coming." I said it as a statement more then a question.

"WHAT?" Kyo screamed running, I assumed, to the roof.

"Yes… but Ha'ri should be not far behind," he said ignoring Kyo, he was happy. I knew he didn't get to see both of his friends together very often, and I don't think that the last time counted. But now it was my turn to be distracted, Hatori was coming as well. I tried to stop the smile from creeping up on me face but I failed epically. Instead I just turned my face away from Shigure's piercing stare to try to hide my grin.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen: Fight**

Ayame was very predictable. Just as she had thought he showed up and promptly began to annoy Yuki, who hadn't even realized he was coming. Ayame had waltzed around the room blabbing about Yuki's 'moment of romance' as he called it. Yuki blushed the entire time and tried desperately to escape. Eventually Hatori did turn up to take Aya home, and Inora flashed him a huge smile as he walked in. He, however, never looked in her direction, and she couldn't help but feel a little hurt at that. She didn't get a chance to figure it out because Yuki had taken advantage of the distraction and ran off. She felt that somehow his mood was her fault so, ignoring Aya's questions about how long she had been dating Yuki, she followed him.

"Yuki?" she asked hesitantly through the door to his room.

"Yeah," he sounded like he had seriously considered not answering.

"I'm sorry," she said simply, pulling the door open.

"About what?" he asked curiously looking at her for the first time since after school. She walked over and sat next to him on the bed.

"Well I should have warned you about my plan, I didn't realize it would throw you off so much," she said playing with the edge of his comforter.

"Oh n-no it was fine, I mean yeah you surprised me a bit. But this should keep them off my back for at least a while. And that's what I wanted so I can't-"

"Ok _Tohru_. Stop blabbing," I said with a smile, and he chuckled lightly. They spent quite a bit of time talking about their lives after that. For some reason they stayed away from topics about the future and the past. They mostly talked about what their hobbies were and what they did in a usual day. Inora had noticed something a while ago and decided that this was a good a time as any to ask him.

"So," she said with a knowing smile. "You really like Tohru huh?"

"Oh yes she's a great friend," he replied quickly, she saw a faint blush on his cheeks that told her that he knew that wasn't what she was asking.

"You know that's not what I meant," she said quietly. He looked at her for a long moment then sighed in defeat.

"Yeah… in all honesty I don't know how I feel about her, I just know that I care about her."

"Fair enough," she said and dropped it. She heard a car leaving in the distance and sighed, why wouldn't Hatori look at her? As if Yuki had read her mind he looked at her with a smile.

"You really like Hatori don't you?" he asked her quietly.

"I hadn't realized anyone besides 'Gure had noticed," she said blushing slightly. Since he had been honest with her she decided to return the favor. She spent the next half an hour telling Yuki about all of her and Hatori's conversations and about how they would stare at each other without even realizing it.

"I mean, is he usually like that or do you think it's something else?" she asked him. Yuki had already told her that he had needed to see Hatori a lot when he was young for some breathing problems. She thought that he might know him well enough to know.

"Well Hatori is usually a very serious person, if he is smiling a lot around you then… yes, I would say it's something more," he said with a smile that for some reason didn't quite look right to Inora, but she smiled back anyway.

"Really? That would be… awesome," she finished lamely, she couldn't seem to put it into words. "Anyway sorry for taking up all your time, I guess I just really wanted to talk about it. I hadn't realized."

"It's ok, I don't mind," Yuki said softly.

* * *

><p>It was a few days after she had had he conversation with Yuki and it was very clear to everyone that they had quickly became friends. Inora found it odd that even though she shared a room with her, Tohru was the only person she hadn't really gotten to know. She had talked to Yuki about his student council problems and other school events everyday since their talk. She had also taken some martial arts lessons from Kyo who had been very impressed with how hard she could punch. With Tohru, however, she would help with diner and maybe make small talk. But then again, for some reason, Inora had always gotten along better with guys more then girls.<p>

She had something else that concerned her more than her inability to make girl talk. She couldn't get Hatori off of her mind and, more specifically, the way he had avoided her eye the last time she saw him. She had been warring with herself on whether or not to ask Shigure for advice. But when it came down to it, Shigure probably knew him better then anyone.

"'Gure?" Inora called into his study. "Can I ask you for… well, help?"

"Of course, come in," he said kindly, she closed the door behind her so no one would hear them.

"What is the deal with Hatori? I mean, did I do something wrong to upset him?" she spilled out, and Shigure chuckled lightly.

"Ah I was wondering when you would come to me with this. In all honesty I believe that night he was a little hurt by what he had heard," he said.

"Hurt? But…how?" she asked.

"Well by you kissing Yuki of course. You see, he's not someone that has to deal with jealousy very often, so he didn't know how to deal with it," he said.

"He's jealous? But I didn't think he…" she trailed off.

"My dear girl, if you don't think he has some strong feelings for you, then you're not as smart as I thought." He said with a sideways smile, she had to think about that one for a moment.

"It's more like I didn't want to get my hopes up," she mumbled.

"Ah… hope does have the potential to crush ones spirit, but it can also lift you up, to a higher place. And in my experience the second outcome is well worth risking the first," he said, she stared at him for a few moments.

"So there _is_ a reason why the others come to you so much… you can be really sensitive when you want to be," she said smiling at him and he smiled back.

"Well I try anyway," he said in a lighter tone. She got up to leave when she suddenly thought of something else.

"Oh would you mind telling him, subtly of course, that that was just an act? That I was just trying to help Yuki?" She asked as she backed towards the door.

"Already did it! Who do you think I am, some sort of amateur? That's why he didn't leave right away, and he was defiantly feeling better when he left," he said happily.

"Thanks 'Gure I owe you one," she said blowing him a kiss then bounced out of the room. She went down to the living room to find Dan organizing his things.

"(Oh Inora, I've been wanting to talk to you but you've seemed really busy,)" he said only glancing up once. She immediately felt bad for not paying too much attention to him for the last few days but she had had a lot on her mind.

"(I'm sorry Dan,)" she said whining a little. "(But I've just been dealing with some stuff.)"

"(Yeah I know,)" he said and smiled when she looked confused. "(I don't have to speak the language to know, drama is still drama in any language.)"

"(Well I wouldn't exactly call it drama…)" she said quietly.

"(Anyway that's not what I wanted to say, I'm sorry for not telling you sooner but I'm leaving tonight,)" he said abruptly

"(Tonight?)" she almost yelled. "(Well thanks a lot Dan, I was gonna plan something nice for you!)"

"(I know, I know, I'm sorry. But I don't really want anything anyway. I see now that you are safe so there's no reason for me to be here anymore. The only thing I ask is… I wanna talk to that Hatori guy, and threw Hatsu not you,)" he said.

"(Well I could see if they can come, I mean, they would want to say bye anyway. Also Hatori will probably drive you aga-…Wait, what?)" she had been so distracted by his sudden departure that she didn't even think about how weird his request was.

"(I uh… want to thank him, you know for fixing your shoulder,)" he said quickly. It was a lie and she knew it, but she just shrugged and went to the phone. She called Hatsu first and he agreed quickly to come, and just as she thought, he wanted to say goodbye. She was a little more nervous calling Hatori, but to her relief he agreed even quicker then Hatsu had. They were both coming soon so she didn't even have to tell them a time. By the time she had finished telling everyone in the house she heard a knock on the door.

"Hey Hatori," she said as he walked in, she was glad to see that he was acting _almost_ like he used to. There was just something… different, but it wasn't necessarily for the worse.

"Don't I get a 'hey'?" Hatsu asked from behind Hatori. She ran up to him and threw her arms around him.

"Hatsu, I miss our lessons," she said as she let go, he beamed at her.

"Well you know you could always learn to read and write Japanese," he said brightly. That thought had never occurred to her; after all she was only staying for the year.

"Awww, it's ok to just say that you missed me," she said putting an arm around his waist and walking with him to the door. She looked up and saw Hatori watching them with an expression that looked halfway between amused and…something else.

"Damn straight I missed you," he said while kissing her lightly on the top of her head. Inora smiled as she realized that she had been wrong, he wasn't like her grandpa, he was more like her dad.

"Well I'll have to visit more often," she said. "Anyway Dan's in the living room and is very set on seeing you, you'd better just get it out of the way," she added looking over Hatsu's shoulder at Hatori. They both moved silently into the other room and she sat down at the dining room table curiously. They were in there for maybe five minutes before they all came out. Hatori led the way looking like he seriously wanted to escape, this time she could read the expressions clearly. There was a lot of amusement mixed with a good dose of embarrassment, but there was also a hint of fear. Hatsu was just straight up amused at whatever had been said. And Dan had his lecturing face on, which made Inora sigh.

It was almost lunch time so she figured that she should go see if Tohru needed any help in the kitchen. Inora had tried to get Tohru to give her more of the chores but she had insisted that there wasn't that much to do. Inora just settled for helping with the meals sometimes. Tohru sent her to work chopping vegetables and Kyo came in to get something to drink. She tried to make some conversation with both of them but with no luck. She didn't know why but they seemed to be really distracted lately.

Yuki walked into the room completely spaced out. He had been doing that a lot lately she noticed, ever since the fan club thing. While he and Inora had been talking a lot more lately, he still hadn't truly opened up to her since they had talked about their feelings for Tohru and Hatori. Because of her own issues lately with Hatori she hadn't asked him what was wrong. He walked through the kitchen while looking out of the window, so he hadn't seen Kyo looking in the refrigerator for milk and he bumped right into him. Kyo was predictable as ever.

"Watch where you're going you damn rat!" Kyo said. Yuki's response was what caught everyone off guard.

"Well if your stupid ass hadn't been so far out into the walkway I may have been able to avoid it!" Everyone stopped and stared at Yuki. Kyo was thrown for a second as well.

"Huh? Well…uh…" he fumbled then recovered. "YOU THINK SO? I'LL WIPE THE FLOOR WITH YOUR FACE! LET'S TAKE THIS OUTSIDE!"

"After you," Was all Yuki said. Hatori and Shigure were already outside smoking when the two of them stomped past.

"Again?" Shigure and Hatori said together. Inora and Tohru followed them, Inora just found it interesting to watch them still. Tohru, on the other hand, was jittery and biting her nails. She kept up her usual string of "eh" and "er's." Inora walked over to stand by the two men.

"Don't you know the day wouldn't be complete without it?" Inora chuckled.

"True," Shigure said. Then something occurred to her.

"You guys smoke? How did I not know that?" she asked them, but their response was drowned out by Kyo.

"ALRIGHT RAT BOY, BRING IT ON!" Kyo shouted. Yuki didn't bother to respond, he simply took a swipe at Kyo. He missed, and it wasn't just a miss, he was way off. Hatori and Shigure, who had seen those two fight more times then they could count, sat up. Kyo didn't miss his chance, while Yuki was recovering from all of his force going into nothing Kyo connected forcefully with the side of his face. Yuki stumbled more, for some reason he kept glancing at the group on the porch. Inora tried to figure out what he was seeing that was so distracting.

From where Yuki was Shigure was sitting on the far right with Hatori sitting to his left. Inora was standing beside Hatori with Tohru bouncing around on the far left. Inora decided he must be looking at Tohru, and also that she is why he had been so distracted lately. Yuki kicked towards Kyo's head but missed again, he had to turn away from Kyo in order to put his foot down and regain his balance. Kyo planted his left foot in the ground and used all of his force, his right hand connected with the very centre of Yuki's back. Yuki flew forward and sprawled out on the ground. Kyo drew himself up to his full height.

"Now you know how it feels rat boy, not so cocky now huh?" Kyo laughed. Yuki was pissed. Inora knew this wasn't over, and from the way it was going it may last a while, she sat down next to Hatori. The movement seemed distract Yuki again for just a moment. He jumped up and did some sort of roundhouse kick and finally connected with Kyo's head. This time Kyo flew backwards and skidded along the ground, Yuki slowly put his foot back down and started screaming at him.

"_I__'__m__cocky_? YOU SELF-CENTERED BASTARD, YOU'RE THE COCKY ONE! YOU THINK YOU CAN HAVE WHATEVER THE HELL YOU WANT? WELL YOUR WRONG HATORI!"

"What the hell?" Shigure, Kyo and Inora said together. Yuki realized his mistake as soon as he said it. His eyes bugged out and he had a very intense staring contest with the ground. Hatori was seriously confused and was studying Yuki closely. Tohru had missed it completely so she was also confused. Yuki tried to recover but was failing.

"I… I mean… you…" He stammered. He looked at the porch again and, now that she was suspicious, Inora saw it was right at her. They made eye contact then he turned and ran into the woods. 'Is that what everyone does when there upset around here?' Inora thought. Tohru made to follow him but Inora grabbed her arm.

"I think I should go," she said. She stood up and started off after him. When she was a few feet away she glanced back. Shigure, in his all knowing smugness, smiled and winked at her. Tohru and, to her relief, Hatori still looked just plain confused. As she walked by Kyo he finally got up.

"What the hell was that all about? Ah damn it, and I almost won!" he said. Good, he already moved on from what Yuki had said and was mourning his loss. She sprinted to catch up to him, but he was fast. It was all she could do just to keep him in her sights so she wouldn't loose him. She was far enough behind that he didn't know she was there, so he stopped in a clearing to catch his breath. As she ran up to him he blushed, and it was very clear that he didn't particularly want to see her right now.

"Damn…you're fast," she said in between her gasps for air. She hadn't realized how out of shape she was. She took a few seconds to catch the rest of her breath.

"Again I need to apologize," she said. "I hadn't realized. Do you want to tell me about it?" he stared at her for a moment then sighed, much like he had the last time they had talked like this.

"When I first met Tohru and we became friends, I actually looked at her like the mother I never really had. But then I slowly began to have…other feelings for her. It was pretty weird having those types of feelings mixed up. But just as I started to think like that I realized that her and Kyo, well… there meant for each other. Have you seen it?"

"Yes… I have," she said quietly, not really sure where he was going with this.

"Well that hurt for a time but I've moved on for the most part. Then you came along… well let's just say I never thought of you like my mother. I know that we never had much interaction but I found you funny… and strong. Your one of the strongest people I have ever met. But now I see that you belong with Hatori, and well…"

"You bundled Hatori in with Kyo and took it out on him," Inora finished for him and Yuki nodded slowly.

"I'm just… I want…" he was struggling to find the right words. "When will it be my turn? When will someone be meant for me?"

"Yuki," she almost whispered. "She's out there; you just have to believe it. You're still young you so don't need to hurry or anything."

"Some people never find them," he said quietly.

"That's because there not looking. I know you Yuki you are the type of person who _will_ fall in love. Believe me when I say: she's out there, and she's trying to get to you. She just doesn't know it yet." A single tear slid down his face as he walked over to her and gave her a tight hug.


	14. Chapter 14

(A/N): so all of you who have stuck with me I feel as though you will be rewarded in this chapter. At least I hope so. Also just as a reminder she got to Japan in November. :)

**Chapter****Fourteen:****Marry****Christmas**

Inora woke up feeling a strange sadness, and it took her a second to remember why. It was December 25th, it was Christmas. Usually the day would be a happy one for her but this was the first year she hadn't spent it with Dan. She had already talked to Tohru about it about a week ago, the same day Dan had left.

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><p><em>"<em>_So __Tohru,__what __do __you __guys __do __for __Christmas __here?__" __Inora __had __asked._

_"__Oh __nothing __really __special, __new __years __is __a __much __bigger __deal __to __us __here,__" __she __replied.__ "__Maybe __a __nice __dinner, __and __some times __some __presents.__" _

_ "Oh," Inora had said trying to hide her disappointment. "Yeah, it's just weird not seeing any decorations around, you know?"_

_"__Well __we __could __put __up __some __if __you __want,__" __Tohru __said __kindly._

_"__N-no! __I __mean, __it__'__s __not __a __big __deal __really,__" __she __blurted; __she __didn__'__t __want __to __seem __needy._

_ "Oh… well if you're sure," Tohru said studying her._

_ "I am, really don't worry about it," Inora said with a fake smile._

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><p>Inora got up to get dressed, and she decided that she wouldn't say a word about Christmas. She would just call Dan and call it good; it wouldn't kill her to miss one Christmas. When she slid open her door she gasped, in the doorway there was a curtain of Christmas lights hanging down. She parted the lights and stepped into the hallway, and then she just stood there taking it all in. The hallway was completely decked out with garlands, lights, holly, and of course mistletoe. She eventually made her way to the stares and saw that the whole house was the same.<p>

As she made her way down the stares she trailed her hand along the garland that was wrapped around the banister. As soon as her foot hit the bottom step she darted into the living room to see if Tohru had thought of everything. When she flew into the room she wasn't disappointed, there was a huge tree with a ton of colorful lights and twice as many ornaments. She felt like she was five years old as she stared at the tree in amazement. After a minute of staring she felt that she needed to find Tohru, and she knew just where to look.

"Tohru!" she yelled as she burst into the kitchen. She grabbed the girl around the waist before she even had a chance to turn around. Inora lifted her up and spun her in a few circles before putting her back down again.

"Wha-" Tohru tried to say but she was blushing bright red and was trying to catch her breath from being squeezed so hard.

"You are the most amazing person ever!" Inora gushed.

"N-no! I- uh," she stuttered waving her hands in front of her face. Inora was about to tell her to 'just shut up and take the compliment' when a familiar voice came from the doorway.

"These are quite amazing decorations, you outdid yourself Tohru," Hatori said, looking around at all of the colors. Inora spun around and gave him a huge smile.

"Hatori, I didn't know you were coming," she said a little breathlessly.

"Yes, Tohru told me a week ago what she was planning so I was able to clear my schedule," he said still looking at all of the lights. "I'm glad I did." He looked back at Inora and gave her his warm smile.

"I'm glad you did too," she almost whispered. Hatori opened his mouth to say something then his eyes shifted to Tohru and he closed it.

"Do…you want to go for a walk of something?" Inora asked nervously.

"You read my mind," he said quietly and stood to the side of the doorway so she could pass. She walked by him, noticing the heat coming off of his body as she did, and made her way to the front door. She slipped on the coat that Tohru was still letting her borrow, and they walked into the cold air. They walked side by side down a path in silence, but it was a comfortable silence, like they were just enjoying each others company.

"I can't believe it hasn't snowed yet," Inora said finally breaking the silence. "I wish it would…"

"You like the snow?" he asked. She nodded then thought about it.

"Well to a certain point anyway, after too long or too much, I want to go at it with a flame thrower," she said then laughed and she heard him laugh as well, it was one of his real laughs, not the chuckle that he usually gives.

"I know exactly what you mean," he said.

"I love your laugh, you should use it more often," she said beaming at him. He slowed to a stop making her double back a little, wondering what was wrong. When she turned to look at him he was staring intently at her.

"Believe me, you already hear it more often then anyone else ever has," he said while taking a step closer to her. She didn't know what to say, his simple statement made her heart race. They stayed like that for a second; the wind picked up and blew Inora's hair around her face. He reached out and touched her cheek for a second then moved his fingers towards her ear brushing her hair behind it. He left his hand there then slowly moved it further into her hair; she could feel her whole body shaking and it had nothing to do with the cold. He moved forward so their body's were only about six inches apart, then he froze searching her face.

She pleaded silently with him to continue and he got the message. He leaned down and pressed his lips softly to hers. He wove his hand even further into her hair until he was gently cradling her head. He brought his other arm up and wound it around her waist leaving his hand in the small of her back. She ran her hands up his chest to snake them around his neck, and she wound her fingers into his incredibly soft hair. Everything just seemed to be right, the way his soft lips moved perfectly against hers, and the way that his hair brushed against one side of her face. Everything was perfect, she felt like she was being held even though she wasn't against his chest, and his uneven breathing sent shivers down her spine. Eventually they broke apart.

"Do you have any idea how long I've wanted to do that?" Hatori asked her quietly, their faces were still inches apart so she could feel his warm breath on her face. She tried to speak but nothing came out, she swallowed hard and tried again.

"No longer then I have," she said in a shaky voice, she could still feel her knees shaking. He chuckled lightly and brushed his fingers down her hair, and then something seemed to occur to him.

"Oh yes, I got you a Christmas present," he said digging in his pocket, still keeping his arm around her waist. He held it up for her and she reluctantly took an arm from around his neck to take it. She stared at the wrapping for a few moments; the paper was maroon with a rich purple bow on top.

"How… how did you know?" she asked in awe.

"That those were your favorite colors? The night you stayed at my house and I… put you to bed, you became rather insistent that I know that," he said with a chuckle as she blushed.

"Yeah… sorry about that by the way," she said gently tugging on a corner of the wrapping; it was too beautiful to just rip off.

"I've been meaning to ask… do you really not remember anything from that night?" he asked slowly as she kept unwrapping the paper. She decided that, given there current situation, it wouldn't hurt to tell him.

"Actually I remember most of it, but after you wrapped my hand and I started to fall asleep I only remember flashes," she said, pausing in her unwrapping project and looking at him.

"So you remember… what you said about my- my eye?" he asked looking deep into her eyes as if he was looking for the answer there.

"Oh that. Of course I did," she said simply.

"And do you know what happened?" he asked slowly, like it was hard for him to say the words.

"Yes," she whispered. "Shigure told me… my opinion is still the same if that's what you were wondering. If anything it's gotten stronger." They stood there in silence for a time while Hatori processed that. Inora finished unwrapping her present carefully too find a silky black box, she opened it and gasped. It was a rose, the peddles were expertly cut, see through stones that had a pink-purple tint. Gold metal made up the border of each petal and it hung from a delicate gold chain. It looked like the ones that were in front of Hatsu's house.

"Do you like it?" he asked, she couldn't believe that he was unsure.

"Like it? I love it! This is the best present… anyone has ever given me," She whispered. "The Rose of Winter…right?"

"You remembered," he whispered grinning at her for a second before pressing his lips to hers again. She got shaky again and wondered if she could possibly ever get used to this, she decided that she couldn't. When they broke apart again she tried to find her voice again but ended up having to settle for a whisper.

"Of course I remembered, that was the first time I heard you laugh," she whispered into his neck. She realized for the first time how much taller he was then her, the top of her head only reached the bottom of his chin.

"Same here," he said simply. He gently took the necklace out of her hand and walked behind her. She felt goose bumps erupt on the back of her neck when he moved her hair around to the front of her shoulder. He slipped the necklace over her head and fastened the clasp, she gasped slightly when she felt his lips press gently over where the clasp rested.

"As much as I hate to say it… we should probably head back and enjoy Tohru's work," She said once she caught her breath again.

"You're probably right," he said with a sigh. He took her hand as they headed towards the house. They walked silently back but Inora suddenly stopped when she caught glimpses of the house through the trees.

"Wait, we don't need to keep this secret or anything right?" she asked awkwardly, but it seemed to be a good question because he thought about it for a while.

"No," he finally said. "Not from the people in this house anyway, but the ones living at the estate, yes. You see Shigure has worked very hard for this house to be…freer. So I'll think we'll be safe here, well as safe as possible for a Zodiac member anyway…the people in this house are fine," She decided not to comment on how unfair that was, how they always had to live in fear of Akito.

"And Aya," she said with an evil grin. Before he could respond she took off toward the house with him hot on her heels. He had way longer legs so he caught her around the waist quickly and turned her to face him.

"Actually let's not say anything to him just yet," he said with humor in his eyes.

"HA, scared?" she asked.

"Hell yes I am," he said letting her go.

"Fair enough," she consented, and they stared towards the house again. Once she got inside she remembered what she was going to do this morning.

"Oh I have to call Dan to say merry Christmas," she said and reluctantly left him to get her phone out of the kitchen. She dialed his number just hoping, unlike this morning, to get this over with quickly.

"(Hello,)" Dan said.

"(Dan, Merry Christmas! How has you week been without me?)" she asked.

"(Oh it's been fine,)" he started and then launched into a story about work. She had stopped listening because she felt someone's hand on her back; she turned to just get a glimpse of Hatori before he was kissing her. She twisted the phone away so the receiver was pointing to the back of her head; she forced her self to take her mouth away from his.

"What is it with you guys and not letting me make a phone call," she whispered to him. He didn't say anything but he ducked his head and kissed her neck right below where her ear met her jaw. She heard someone's voice from a long way off.

"(Inora? Are you there?)" Dan asked and she quickly flipped the phone around.

"(Dan something just came up I'll have to call you later,)" she said very aware of how breathless she sounded. She didn't wait for his answer before she snapped the phone shut and casually tossed it on the counter, and then she gave Hatori her undivided attention. As soon as he knew that she was focused on him he moved back to her lips, his kisses rougher and more passionate than they had been in the woods. When she thought of Hatori she had never thought that he could be like…_this_. She was insanely happy that he was, however. She gave him a 'hint' by opening her mouth slightly and letting her breath wash over her face.

She immediately felt his smooth tongue slide over hers, and he tasted _good_. She had a sudden thought and she hopped up to sit on the counter she had been leaning on so he wouldn't have to bend his neck so much to reach her. She couldn't believe she hadn't noticed how tall he was before today. She faintly realized that her phone was ringing but she was in no condition to even care at the moment. But once that noise stopped another one picked up, occasionally interrupted by something else. She eventually slid open one eye and what she saw make her jump and hit her head on the cabinet behind her.

"Ow," she squealed half in surprise. "Shigure! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't beat the (shit) out of you right now?" He had been standing in the doorway clapping and occasionally whistling.

"Because you love me too much," he said with an evil grin. "Good thing you stopped when you did, I was about to have to shoo the children out!" Inora looked over to the other doorway that led to the hallway.

There was Tohru, Yuki and Kyo just standing there with their mouths hanging open. She hadn't wanted Yuki to see that but she was more distracted by trying to figure out why he looked so surprised. Then Inora really took a look at how they had ended up, her sitting on the counter with Hatori's waist pressed in between her legs. She knew it had been innocent, they were just getting as close as they could without him transforming, but she supposed that they had no way of knowing that. Hatori wasn't Shigure, and she wasn't making the same mistake twice.

"I didn't even know you too were dating," Kyo said and Inora glanced at Hatori. They hadn't officially declared themselves as dating or anything, he looked back for a moment then answered after seeing the question in her eyes.

"We just started dating today," he clarified while smiling at her warmly, then he turned to them. "I would appreciate it if you would keep this within the household… I'm sure you can understand why."

"And Aya," Inora said with an evil grin again and Shigure burst out laughing, and Hatori sighed.

"Oh man I like you," he said in between his bouts of laughter.

"You're just now figuring this out?" Inora said faking sadness.

"Well no, I just felt the need to express myself," he said dramatically, and She rolled her eyes at him.

"Shut up Shigure," Hatori said simply.

"Eh- um, Dinner is ready," Tohru said sweetly trying to change the subject.

"How long were we outside, then in here?" Inora whispered to Hatori, he looked at his watch and raised his eyebrows.

"A few hours," he whispered back, they looked at each other then started laughing. Neither one of them had had any concept of time obviously. After Inora called her Uncle and made a bunch of excuses, they went in and sat at the table, Tohru had defiantly outdone her self. It looked like a thanksgiving feast more than a Christmas dinner, and everything tasted amazing. It was actually really nice to have food she recognized again, it was their turn to prod at stuff now.

"This is absolutely perfect, just like my mom made! Tohru, how did you know what to cook?" Inora asked her.

"I had Shigure help me look it up online," she said blushing. "Same with the decorations."

"Yeah, you should have seen me running around like a five year old this morning," Inora said laughing.

"In America how long do you usually keep them up for?" Yuki asked.

"Until April," she laughed. "I'm just kidding, it's kinda a joke over there," she explained when they looked surprised. "If the person isn't lazy then they take them down in the first week of the new year."

"I think that will be nice," Shigure said leaning back a little. "Wow this food is filling." The whole table launched into conversation after that. They talked late into the night only pausing to clear the table. The moon was high in the sky before Hatori looked at his watch and frowned.

"I really should be going," he said and sighed. He stood and Inora sprang up with him.

"I'll walk you out," she said cheerfully. As soon as they were out on the porch with the door closed, he pulled her close and kissed her sweetly. He pulled back and traced a long finger down her cheek and then across her necklace.

"That looks perfect on you," he almost whispered. "Marry Christmas Inora."

"Marry Christmas Hatori," she whispered back before he kissed her cheek and walked into the night.

* * *

><p>(AN): Yay I finally made it to this point! When I first thought about writing this story I thought I would have them dating by about chapter 5! Buuuuuuuuut… I kept thinking of things I wanted to happen first. I'm so happy I get to start writing about them being together now! And I'd like to thank LyssaLoo62 again for being so awesome with the reviewing! You're awesome!


	15. Chapter 15

(A/N): Ok, whoo! I battled with my first writers block and won! But it was all thanks to LyssaLoo62, who gave me an outline for this chapter. I said it before and I'll say it again: you are AWESOME! I just hope this is what you were looking for. ;)

**Chapter Fifteen: Snow**

"Inora are you ok?" Shigure asked.

"Huh?" Inora asked completely out of it.

"I just asked if you're alright," he said with a smile pulling at his lips. "You seem a little… dazed. Ah, this wouldn't have anything to do with your plans tonight would it?"

"No," she said too quickly. "I-I just have a lot on my mind."

"Uh huh," he said unconvinced. She rolled her eyes at him and got up from her place at the table to escape to her room. Shigure hadn't been the only one to notice that she was a bit preoccupied, and she guessed that they all knew why. Hatori had called the night before and asked her on a date. They had been dating for a few weeks now, ever since Christmas, but this was going to be their first real date. While he had come to Shigure's every free moment he had, that still didn't give them enough time to really get to know each other. He was an incredibly busy man so the most time they could have together was usually an hour at the most. And in that hour… their lips were too busy for talking.

Thinking back to their phone call he had said that dinner would be at seven, so she assumed that he would pick her up at six thirty or so. She looked at the clock, it was almost four.

"Only three hours left," she said out loud.

"Three hours until what," an amused voice said from the doorway. She spun around to find Hatori in one of his usual suits leaning against the doorway. She could feel her heart pick up speed as it always did when she saw him; she had given up hope of that ever going away.

"Nothing," she said blushing. He smiled knowingly and walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her waist while still keeping a six inch gap between them. She was practically an expert now on how much contact could be made without him transforming. That still doesn't mean that she hasn't ended up with a seahorse in her lap a few times.

"How sweet," he whispered as he brushed his lips against hers. "You were counting down the time until our date weren't you?"

"Maybe," she whispered back. He chuckled and stepped away from her, leaving her a bit wobbly.

"Well I thought we would go for a walk before dinner, what do you think?" he asked. 'Does he seriously think I might say no?' she wondered.

"I think that would be great," she said beaming. "Oh, where are we going for dinner, I mean how should I dress?"

"You look perfect," he said gently. She looked down at herself; she was wearing jeans and a t-shirt.

"Oh don't give me that," she said glaring playfully at him. "Do I need to dress up or not?"

"Well…" he said slowly, and that gave her all the information she needed. But what could she do? She didn't have any dresses and all of Torhu's would make her look like a slut.

"Ok while we are out on our walk we'll just stop by a store," she said simply. She didn't have much money but she was sure that she could cover buying a dress. She grabbed his hand and walked downstairs. After they finished bundling up they walked outside and into the freezing air. Inora shivered slightly and pressed her shoulder up to Hatori's side as the walked.

"So I don't think I ever got the chance to ask you, how was new years?" she asked, she felt him stiffen beside her. It had been a big deal on December 31st, he kept apologizing the entire day, and even though the phone kept ringing for him he refused to leave her side until he had to go back to Sohma house that night. She had told him that she understood and that new years wasn't that big of a deal for her. But that didn't stop him from explaining, several times, that if he didn't go Akito would be furious and would look into the situation. That and it was his turn to do some kind of dance, she was just sorry that she didn't get to see that. According to Shigure, Hatori had just sat in a corner with Yuki the whole time… besides the dance thing of course.

"It was fine," he muttered in a tone that sounded like it wasn't fine at all. "How was yours?"

"Good, Tohru and Kyo were fun to hang out with. I did start feeling like a third wheel after a while though, seriously when are they going to admit their feelings for each other? I mean they're the only ones that don't know," she said with a laugh, he chuckled beside her and stopped suddenly. She looked around and saw that he was staring down a coffee shop.

"Want to get something to warm us up?" he asked, and pulled her inside the warm store. "What do you want? A latte, a mocha?"

"Ew, are you serious? What is everyone's obsession with coffee? It's so bitter and gross! Ooooh, do they have hot chocolate?" She asked going from disgusted to excided in a heart beat, but then she froze. She realized that she had just sounded like a child, she blushed bright red.

"Hot…chocolate?" he asked then laughed one of his rare carefree laughs.

"Y-yeah, I don't really like coffee but I love hot chocolate," she mumbled still blushing, he was still laughing and she was starting to feel a little hurt. "Why is that so funny?"

"I'm sorry, it's just so…" he trailed off looking for the right word. "Adorable. You are so adorable." She didn't know quite how to take that, parents called their children adorable. She didn't have to think about it for too long because he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers briefly before walking over to the counter to order their drinks. Yeah, Adorable is a good thing.

"So why do you love hot chocolate so much, or is there even a reason?" he asked as they sat down at a table.

"My mom used to make the best hot chocolate, I could never figure out what she did but I have never tasted anything like it since," she said. "She was a coffee drinker along with Dad and pretty much everyone else in the family, so she would make me hot chocolate when I was young so I wouldn't feel left out when everyone else had coffee. As I got older I just kept begging her to make it because of how good it was."

"And what happened…" he trailed off; she realized that she had never told him about the accident.

"Oh right, you don't know. My parents died in a car crash when I was 17. I was in it too, but I was able to get out before the car… exploded. And no, I'm not exaggerating, full tank of gas," she said with a sad smile. "Anyway the paramedics told me that they were unconscious when they burned to death." She finished harshly. She saw Hatori's eyes widen at her callousness. "I'm sorry it's just- if I wasn't so weak I could have been able to save them," she said looking at the table.

"Everyone thinks that when someone they love is hurt. All you can do is accept that you did do all you could at the time, because when it happened you didn't have years to think about your options like you do now," he said quietly. She sat in a stunned silence; everyone had always told her that there was nothing that she could have done. Here Hatori was saying that there may have been something she could have done, but that she couldn't have been expected to come up with it at the time. After all the time and effort everyone she knew had put into comforting her, Hatori just said two sentences and helped her more than any of those people combined.

"Thank you," she whispered across the table. He smiled warmly and placed his hand on top of hers.

"So your uncle raised you after that?" he asked, she was grateful to move on.

"Well I was 17 so there wasn't much raising left to do," she said and chuckled. "You see my grandparents were pretty old when they had him so it was decided that he would live with us, that way it would be like he had parents to go to his games and a sibling. So he is pretty much my brother, in fact I call him that a lot."

"And what does he do?" he asked

"He's a teacher. He teaches math in high school, which is good because I really suck at math," she laughed.

"That's ok you more than make up for it in languages right?" he asked with a smile. "I mean it only took you about three weeks to become fluent in Japanese."

"Well it helped that I already knew Spanish and German," she said, then laughed at the surprised look on his face.

"Why those two?" he asked.

"Well next to English, Spanish is the most spoken in America, and then I wanted German because it sounded like a fun language. Everyone was expecting me to learn French, I wanted to be different," she said with a grin.

"You certainly are," he said with a kind of reverence, then looked at his watch. "If you want to go to a store we should probably get walking again." They gathered up their drinks and headed outside again.

"Now can I ask you a question?" she asked not really sure how to phrase her question.

"Anything," he said grabbing her hand again.

"Why does everyone in your family look…um…white?" she asked uncertainly. While every one of the Sohmas she met had some Japanese like features, for the Most part they looked like they were from Europe.

"White? Oh I see. We don't really know, we just guessed that it has something to do with the curse. It might be our ancestry but marring outside of the family would have changed that by now," he said lost in thought.

"Oh well I was just curious," she said then she stopped much as Hatori had done earlier. "Whoa look at that," she said pointing to an elaborate purple sign.

"Oh, no," he whispered then tried to pull her away. "Come on."

"Wait, it looks like a clothing store maybe I can find something there," she said trying to pull him back.

"No, that's not a good one, we should-" Hatori started but was cut off by a loud noise.

"HA'RI, INORA IT IS SO GOOD TO SEE YOU!" a loud voice came from inside the store. Inora looked and saw Ayame running out to them looking extremely excited.

"Aya, hi," Inora waved at him. She felt Hatori stop struggling and step over to her side. Aya suddenly stopped and stared at something in between them; it took her a second to realize that it was their hands that were still wound together. She couldn't hold back a giggle when she remembered that they hadn't told Aya yet. She elbowed Hatori lightly and he got the message.

"Aya, Inora and I are dating," he said sounding really formal. Aya stood there for another moment then ran forward with his obnoxious laugh. He flung himself at Hatori and gave him a bear hug; Hatori sighed and reluctantly patted his friend on the back. Aya let him go and planted a Kiss on Inora's cheek.

"I am so happy for you! Come inside," he said then pranced inside without waiting for an answer from them. They followed him inside and Inora saw all of the fabrics and couldn't help but run her hand over them.

"Ayame," Hatori said. "We don't have much time; we have dinner reservations And Inora wants to get a dress first." She noticed that he seemed to talk differently to Ayame then to her… or maybe he talked differently to her then to everyone else.

"A dress? Oh I have just the thing!" Aya cried dramatically.

"No," Hatori said quickly. "She wants a dress not a slutty uniform."

"Come now, that's not all I have," Aya said faking anger. "You should just be glad Mine isn't here or else Inora would already be dressed up in, I'm guessing, a nurses uniform." He pranced over and grabbed Inora's hand out of Hatori's and dragged her into the back room. He went to a closet and immediately pulled something flowing, red and purple out of it. He held it up to her before she could fully see it.

"What is it?" she asked trying to see.

"Is it that hard to figure out? It's a dress of course," she said, and she rolled her eyes at him. "Put it on!" He commanded.

"Aya I don't think I have the money to cover-" she started but he cut her off.

"Don't worry I've had this dress in mind for you ever since we met, it's my treat," he said softly. She just shrugged and went into a changing room and slipped it on. She turned to look in the mirror and gasped. The top fitted her perfectly, and then flowed perfectly out from her hips, it had thin straps going over the shoulders that made the whole thing look sexy and yet elegant. It was maroon with purple flowers embroidered all over it. She must have mentioned her favorite colors to him as well.

"Aya this is amazing," she said in awe as she stepped out. It flowed all the way to the floor and swirled around her as she walked.

"Here," he said and handed her some black high healed shoes.

"Thanks," she said slipping them on, then she looked at the clock and gasped. It was a quarter till seven. She ran out to the shop just hoping that the restaurant wasn't too far. She had forgotten for a moment what she was wearing until she saw his face.

"Inora," he whispered. "You look…amazing." And he broke into a grin; she smiled back at him before she remembered the time.

"Hatori it's almost seven, we need to leave," she said heading towards the door.

"Ah well as soon as he took you away I knew we wouldn't make it if we walked, so I called a car for us," he said simply. "It's already waiting outside." Inora walked outside but then froze.

"You said a car," she said lamely.

"Oh well car, limo, what's the difference," he said with a smile. Inora couldn't find her voice as she climbed in; it was just like what you see in movies. This was her first time in one though. She cuddled up to his side as the 'car' began to move, she felt him kiss the top of her head softly. Inside the restaurant was amazing, she had briefly worried that she would be overdressed in the dress Aya gave her, but she didn't worry about that now. There were chandeliers and everything seemed to be gold.

"Mister Sohma, nice to see you again," the hostess said kindly. "We have your table ready for you, right this way." She led them to a small table away from everyone else. In fact as she sat down she glanced around and couldn't see any of the other diners because of a low wall that separated them. The family must have more pull then she originally thought.

"This is amazing, I love it," she said smiling.

"You haven't even tried the food yet," he teased. She didn't get to respond because waiters began to attack the table with Champaign, candles and a ton of food. The left just as quickly as they came leaving the table completely altered. She thought things like that only happened in the movies.

"Um," she said looking at her plate.

"I hope you don't mind, I prefer to call ahead with my order, otherwise it takes forever," he said sipping his Champaign.

"No that's- I mean, I wouldn't have known what to order anyway," she said with a smile. They ate and talked for quite sometime; they laughed at the smallest things and barely registered when someone came to check on them. The only measurement of time was from how far down the candles had burned.

"Would you like to walk some more?" he asked, it was clear to Inora that he didn't want this date to be over as much as she didn't.

"Yeah, but lets go back to Aya's first so I can change," she said and got up; he had already paid so they walked out with a lot of waiters wishing them a good night. They got a cab to take them back to the shop, and thankfully Ayame was still there. She changed quickly then they went back outside before Ayame could ask too many questions. They made their way down the street to a lovely park, as they walked down the sidewalk they were quietly holding hands and looking at the stars. When they got to the middle of the park there was a fountain and as they gazed at it, it began to snow.

"It's finally snowing," she said beaming at him, her smile slid off of her face as she saw the sadness in his eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong," he said trying to smile.

"Don't give me that," she said quietly. "Tell me what's bothering you."

"It's… I'm worried," he whispered. "I don't want a repeat…"

"Of Kana?" She asked, and he nodded not meeting her eyes. "Ok since this is the first time I'll let it slide, but don't ever compare me to her." his eyes widened, she thought for a second that she was being too harsh but then she knew that he needed to be told.

"Kana was weak and selfish. From what I heard she acted like she was the victim in the whole situation, when you were the real victim, she should have been strong, for you Hatori. She chose the easy path-to forget instead of helping you," she said fiercely, Hatori wasn't meeting her eye still so she gently took his face in her hands and forced him to look at her. "I'm sorry, I know you still have feelings for her but you need to know. I would never do that. I would never abandon you to suffer alone."

"Your right, I shouldn't have done that… and thank you," he whispered. He leaned down and kissed her gently at first but then harder. Her breaths were already coming in sharp bursts from his passion. He pulled away for a moment the whispered in her ear, "Come back to my house."

* * *

><p>She wasn't exactly sure how but they had gotten back to his place through the hole in the estate wall. She had been so spaced out that she didn't even remember giving him an answer to his question, but she must have seeing as he was leading her down the hall to his bedroom. <em>His <em>_bedroom._The thought of what might happen made her heart pound and her face burn. He pulled her into the room and she heard the door close with a snap, she didn't see it because she couldn't take her eyes off the bed. He came around and stood in front of her and followed her eye sight.

"Are you ok?" he asked quietly. She knew that what he was really asking was 'is this ok?' She nodded quickly and pulled his lips down to hers to prove that this was more than ok. He kissed her with the same passion that he had in the park, they broke apart only to get air then came together again even rougher than before. She felt his breath surround her face and felt his tongue trying to gain access to hers. Just as she flicked her tongue against his she felt something soft against the back of her legs. It took her a second to realize that they had made their way to the bed, but Hatori had frozen there, waiting for her to make the decision. She pulled her lips away from his and they locked eyes for a moment.

She grabbed his shoulders and fell backwards, pulling him roughly on top of her. He barely had enough sense to catch himself before he landed on her. She, on the other hand, was focused solely on trying to get back to his lips. When he had finished positioning himself over her just right he kissed her again. Their legs were intertwined and she could feel every inch of his lower half against her. Whenever he would move the leg that was in between hers she would shudder. She decided that he figured out what caused it after a while because he started to move that leg a lot more. She could feel his smooth tongue gliding over hers, it was driving her crazy. Her breaths were almost pants and she smiled into his lips as she heard that he was breathing much the same way.

"Hatori," she moaned into his mouth. This seemed to encourage him; he grabbed on to her hair and pulled her deeper into the kiss. He ran his hand down and then up her side, as if he was trying to decide where to go with it. Finally he brought his hand down to the hem of her shirt slipped under it; she shuddered again as he felt his fingers brush along her stomach. She brought her hands up and undid the buttons on his shirt quickly and ran her hands across his hard chest. She reluctantly pulled her lips off of his; she needed to catch her breath. Hatori moved his lips down her jaw to her neck, he licked and sucked lightly at the sensitive flesh there making her breathe harder. He brought his other hand up and grabbed the bottom of her shirt and began to pull it upwards.

She helped him with it but then lost track of everything when he started undoing her pants. She flopped back on the bed and focused on her breathing so she wouldn't pass out. After he slid the pants off of her she felt a little exposed as he looked at her. He seemed to notice her being uncomfortable because he crawled back over her and kissed her again. This time, however, it was brief; he kissed down her neck then across her chest. She was a little confused for a moment as he was kissing down her stomach, it wasn't until he continued down and showed no signs of stopping that she finally realized what was happening. She gasped as she felt his tongue slide against her. It was gentle at first but then became rougher causing her to stop breathing altogether.

When she did remember to breathe it was labored with moans slipped in, and every time a moan or whimper escaped her lips…it was clear he enjoyed it. She actually cried out when she felt his tongue go _inside_ her. She had never felt anything like this before.

(A/N): Sorry to all who wanted more, I decided to keep this T. So tell me what ya think!


	16. Chapter 16

(A/N): Sup! I'm sorry; I forgot to mention that the Kana bashing in the last chapter was also done with the help of LyssaLoo62. Ok as for this chapter anything in _this_ is in German. Enjoy! _German_ / (English)

**Chapter Sixteen: Nightmares**

"What are you doing?" Hatori asked.

"What does it look like? I'm cooking you dinner," Inora said with a wink before turning back to the stove.

"May I ask why?" he asked stepping up behind her.

"No," she said sarcastically and laughed. "You treated me to a nice dinner last night so now I'm returning the favor," she said then added in a quieter voice. "I might return another favor as well." She glanced at him just in time to see the blush spread across his face.

"Yes, well I- I mean…um," he stuttered. She had never seen him so tongue-tied; in fact his tongue was quite nimble… "What are we having," he finally settled on.

"Chicken," she said simply, she didn't want to give it away just yet. He didn't have a chance to press for more information because the phone rang.

"Excuse me," he said and she rolled her eyes, he still acted really proper around her. She turned back to her work and started humming, nothing at first, but then it turned into a lullaby she had heard as a kid.

"Momiji is coming over," Hatori said walking back into the kitchen. Inora stopped what she was doing for a moment to look at him. "He's a member of the Zodiac as well."

"You want me to leave?" she asked.

"No, Momiji is an amazing person. We'll be alright," he said softly, staring at nothing. "Will there be enough?" he asked gesturing to the stove,

"Oh yeah, no problem," she said with a grin spreading across her face. "I looked at your refrigerator to see if you had everything I needed… and I decided to make a lot so you could have leftovers." Then she added in a quieter voice, "And I threw some of the scarier looking things out." He looked sheepish for a moment but was saved by a knock at the door. He came back a few seconds later with an adorable, blond haired, little boy.

"Guten tag!" Momiji said as soon as he saw her. 'He speaks German?' she wondered.

"_Hello Momiji it's nice to meet you, I'm Inora_" she said with a grin.

"_Ah, you speak German! That's Amazing_!" he said jumping for joy.

"_Only a little_" she said, she had already had problems with his last sentence. Hatori was leaning against a wall watching them with an amused expression. Momiji asked her a question that she could only pick a few words out of.

"See? You already lost me, sorry," she said with a laugh switching back to Japanese.

"That's alright. I asked if you and Ha'ri were dating," he said beaming.

"Oh, yes for a few weeks now," she said and walked over to Hatori and hugged his arm.

"Aaahh, I was wondering why he had been so happy lately," he said with a giggle.

"That's so sweet," she said and kissed Hatori on the cheek. "I'd better go check on dinner." She walked back to the kitchen just as a series of timers went off. She put the finishing touches on the dinner then laid it all out on the table. When she went to get them for dinner she caught the end of their conversation.

"Inora seems different somehow from Kana," Momiji was saying. "If I had to guess I'd say that it was the look in her eye, like she had already been through something… something terrible. And that that something made her stronger then Kana ever could be."

"You are absolutely right… as usual," Hatori said quietly. "She is a very strong woman."

"Dinner you two," she called from the doorway. They both smiled and followed her into the dining room but they froze in the doorway.

"It looks fantastic," Hatori finally said while kneeling down, Momiji joined him. She saw the question in their eyes; she knew that they just didn't want to be rude.

"It's oven-fried chicken and twice baked potatoes, it's my favorite," she said cheerfully as they dished up. They sampled the things on their plates and were obviously pleased.

"Yummy!" Momiji sang beaming at her then laughing. She had never seen such a bubbly kid.

"This is quite good Inora, I didn't know you could cook," Hatori said.

"Well honestly I don't really like to cook so I just let Tohru do it, I clean the house though… but I don't really like that either," she said trailing off then laughing. "I'd rather get a job and pay rent to Shigure, but I can't read Japanese still so… yeah."

"I heard Hatsu offer to teach you though," Hatori said.

"Well I'm only here until mid October…" she trailed off when she saw the look on his face. "Didn't you know that?"

"No," he said quietly. "That is, I didn't know it was as soon as October."

"Honestly, it had slipped my mind as well," she almost whispered then she cleared her throat. "Well we don't need to worry about it now, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it," she said sounding way more confident then she felt. He nodded his agreement and turned back to his food. Despite his agreeing with her she could still tell that it worried him, and that made her feel amazing.

"So Inora are you staying here tonight?" Momiji asked with a giggle. Inora blushed, she didn't want to leave but she didn't want to intrude either. There was also the fact that a kid just asked her if she was planning on sleeping with Hatori tonight, that was a little weird.

"I- I'll probably just leave late, or something," she mumbled looking at the table.

"You can stay as long as you'd like," Hatori said. Momiji giggled again but it quickly turned into a yawn, Inora suddenly noticed the dark circles under his eyes.

"Momiji you look tired, how long did you sleep last night?" Inora asked. Momiji put his chin in his hand and shrugged, his bubbly personality was gone in a flash.

"A few hours…maybe," he said tiredly. "I think I'm gonna go to bed now actually." He stood up and, without another word, dragged himself into the guest bedroom.

"Is he okay?" she asked Hatori.

"Yes and no," He explained. "It's common for him. He suffers from nightmares; he seems to go through bouts of them. He'll have them for a week or so then they will suddenly stop when he is able to get over whatever triggered that set." Inora was taken off guard by that, that is exactly what happens to her.

"Do you think they will ever stop?" she asked managing to keep the shake out of her voice; he had no idea she was asking for herself.

"I doubt it," he said lowering his voice to be sure that Momiji couldn't hear them; she would have laughed at the irony if his words hadn't felt like a knife in her heart. "Time might make them farther apart but… I doubt that he will ever fully be rid of them."

"Oh," she whispered. "So he feels better when he sleeps here?"

"It's more like I'm the only person in his life that will take time out of their day to comfort him," he said bitterly. Inora had no idea what to say. What about his parents? Something in Hatori's face made her not want to ask. After a second she got up and started clearing the table. Hatori helped her but when it came to the dishes she shooed him out.

"This is my thank you dinner, you can't do the dishes for your thank you," she said as she shoved him into the living room to watch T.V.

"Whatever you say," he said, giving in with a sigh. She went back to the kitchen but she didn't even get her hands in the water before she heard a yell. She knew instantly that it wasn't Hatori, without even thinking she ran to the guest room. She didn't know Momiji that well but anyone who could ignore such a scream of emotional agony wasn't even a person, they were some soulless creature. She burst into the guest room and found him thrashing wildly on the bed. He would have fallen off if she hadn't caught him in time, and that was quite a feat seeing as he was punching and kicking the air blindly.

"Stop! I promise to be good!" He shouted. "PLEASE!" Inora shoved him the rest of the way onto the bed and started to shake him awake.

"Momiji, wake up," she said desperately. "It's just a dream wake up!" Finally she saw his eyes snap open and the screams stopped immediately. He stared at her for a second then began to cry. She sat next to him, facing the head board and pulled him upright so she could cradle his head to her chest while keeping his chest away. He was sobbing hysterically, she ran her fingers through his hair in an effort to calm him but nothing seemed to be working. She searched franticly through her mind for something to help him and she finally landed on the lullaby she had been humming earlier, so she started to sing:

(A gentle breeze from Hushaby Mountain

Softly blows o'er Lullaby Bay

It fills the sails of boats that are waiting

Waiting to sail your worries away)

(It isn't far to Hushaby Mountain

And your boat waits down by the key

The winds of night so softly are sighing

Soon they will fly your troubles to sea)

(So close your eyes on Hushaby Mountain

Wave goodbye to cares of the day

And watch your boat from Hushaby Mountain

Sail far away from Lullaby Bay)

By the end of the song her shirt was soaked but he had finally calmed down. It was in English so at first she was worried that it wouldn't work, but he seemed to grasp the meaning. She held him like that for a long time until she could tell from his breathing that he was falling asleep again. She laid him gently back onto his pillow but held onto his hand until she was sure that he was in a deep sleep. She had to tell herself that she would hear if it started again, otherwise she never would have left his side. Also if his nightmares were anything like hers he wouldn't wake up again tonight.

*(Hatori's POV)*

I watched the entire thing in awe. I had made into the hallway just in time to watch her long hair whip around the doorway to Momiji's room. I watched as she woke him and then held him to her like his mother always should have. I watched as she sang beautifully to him as he wept. I watched as she stayed by his side until she was sure he was in a restful sleep. And now I watched as the woman I don't deserve turned to me with a pain stricken face and a shirt that was wet from someone's tears that she just met a few hours ago.

"I didn't know you were here," she whispered as she closed the door quietly behind her. Once she was out in the light I could see that she was blushing. "How much of that were you there for?"

"All of it," I said quietly. How could she be embarrassed?

"I'm sorry you had to suffer through my singing," she joked, her voice at a normal level now that we were down the hallway a ways.

"Your singing was beautiful," I said. How could she not know that?

"Yeah well you're my boyfriend, you're supposed to say that," she said with a smile. It felt like my heart skipped a beat when she said 'boyfriend', this is the first time I've ever heard her use that term. And yet… somehow it didn't seem like it was enough.

"I promise, it was," I said as I put my arm around her, feeling the usual annoyance of not being able to get closer to her. She nodded in a polite way, it was clear that she didn't believe me. She looked tired, I know she hadn't slept much last night and she actually got up before me, and I didn't think anyone got up before me.

"I'm pretty tired," she said as if she was reading my mind. "I haven't slept much the past few nights." She started to head for the back door, where her shoes and coat were, and away from my room. She only got two feet before I grabbed her arm and spun her to face me.

"You aren't going to stay here?" I asked trying not to sound hurt. In all honesty we had only been dating for a few weeks, so most people would think that it was right for her not to stay here. I wasn't one of those people, it seemed so right that she should be here with me. As soon as I asked the question, however, I hoped that she didn't misunderstand my meaning. I wanted to be in her presence, not have sex with her… not that I don't want to have sex with her… perfect, now I'm confusing myself. She, on the other hand, seemed to understand perfectly. She headed to my room with a serine smile on her face.

She borrowed one of my shirts to sleep in seeing as her shirt was still damp. I almost had to revise my earlier thought about sex when she came out of my closet, she was wearing nothing but one of my white dress shirts. It was the sexiest thing I have ever seen, and it almost seemed like she knew that from the smile on her face. As she got into bed beside me, however, she seemed worried about something.

"Is something wrong?" I asked. She seemed to consider me for a moment before answering.

"Yeah but I think it'll be fine," she said sounding distracted. She laid back and cuddled up next to me while keeping a wad of the comforter between us. I felt the annoyance again but this time it also had to do with how she had gotten so good at not transforming me. I had often wondered how far Shigure had gotten with her, until I forced myself to remember that it wasn't my business. She was tired, she fell asleep within minutes. I drifted off to the sound of her even breathing.

I was in a very light sleep when I felt something collide with my knee. I jerked awake to find Inora thrashing much as Momiji had done earlier, the only difference was that she was only whimpering with a few tears sliding from her closed eyelids, which was almost worse. As soon as I thought that, however, she let out a terrible scream and flailed so much that she fell off the bed.

"Inora!" I yelled as I dove after her. She still hadn't woken up even after she hit the floor. I shook her and shook her but she remained trapped within her dream, finally I slapped her and her eyes shot open. She looked at me like she didn't recognize me for a few seconds that seemed like an hour, it broke my heart to have her look at me like that. Finally relief and realization washed over her face, she rolled over to her hands and knees facing me. Then she started to cry in earnest, tears flowing to the floor, and her whole body was shaking with her sobs as she clutched her hand to her mouth to hold them back.

I was astonished; I had never seen her shed a single tear, even when I repositioned her shoulder. Then I realized what she was doing, she was trying to hide it. Or at least she was trying to hide how hard she was crying. I grabbed her chin gently and forced her to look at me; she must have seen my acceptance there. She took her hand away from her mouth and grabbed at the front of my shirt with both hands and buried her face in my chest. She let loose her sobs and I could hear her slightly hyperventilating. I ran my fingers through her hair and across her back, until she found her voice again.

"They weren't unconscious," she said shakily into my chest. I had to think for a second about what she meant. It came to me but I wish it hadn't, she had told me that the paramedics had told her that her parents were unconscious before they… burned to death.

"How…" I was going to ask how she knew but I couldn't make the words come. She knew what I meant.

"Their screams," she said with her voice cracking.

"Oh my God," I whispered. "I am so sorry." I moved so I was sitting with my back against the bed and I grabbed a pillow from above my head. I put the pillow in my lap and had her lay her head on it; I continued to stroke her soft hair as she cried herself to sleep again. I stared at her as she slept with her face a mask of calm; she had been through so much and was stronger for it. No, I defiantly don't deserve a woman like her.

(A/N): ok so if you can guess where that song is from you will get… my respect! Lol also I hope I did ok being in Hatori's head… it's got me worried.


	17. Chapter 17

(A/N): congratulations LyssaLoo62, you have now gained even more of my respect for knowing that song! As always: you're amazing! :) It was "Hushaby Mountain" from the movie "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang."

**Chapter Seventeen: Hatori's Summer**

As weeks went by Inora kept being blown away by how thoughtful and romantic Hatori could be. The more time that went by the more Hatori was desperate to be near her. She knew that he was worried about her leaving at the end of October, she was too. The closer her departure date came the more her heart ached at the thought of leaving him. It was coming to the end of August and she was honestly starting to panic, she didn't want to leave but she wasn't sure that there was a reason to stay. While the curse was still around she knew that she could never be close to him, well as close as she would like to be anyway.

Every week or so Hatori would surprise her with a romantic date, or he would just surprise her with something that she forgot that she had told him she liked. One of these times had been when he played her favorite musician, Bruce Springsteen, as she walked in his door. She felt silly for thinking it but he was overdue this week. She had tried to give him surprises as well but she just wasn't as good at it as he was, in fact she kinda sucked, but he appreciated her attempts.

"Inora, what are you thinking?" Shigure asked, making her jump. She had been sitting on the couch in the living room and he had snuck up behind her.

"The curse," She said simply, that brought him up short, she usually didn't talk about it. "I was wondering… is there anyway to, you know, break it?"

"Well… we always like to think that it will but-"

"But you have no idea where to even start." She finished for him.

"Exactly," he said with a smile. "I believe that it is already weakening and has been for quite some time. If I had to guess I would say that one day it will just be gone once everything falls into place. What those things are I can't know."

"Well that's not very helpful," she muttered.

"No, but I think you are," he said mysteriously as he walked out.

"What the hell?" She asked but he was already gone. She just shrugged, she was used to his annoying vagueness by now. She went back to wondering what Hatori would do next, she felt incredibly spoiled, and there was still the chance that he had run out of ideas. As if her thoughts had summoning powers Hatori burst into the room slightly out of breath.

"How do you always do that? She asked amazed.

"Do what?" he asked.

"Randomly pop up just as I'm thinking about you. Of course there isn't much time when I'm not thinking about you," she added with a wink. He smiled and moved to sit on the couch next to her.

"I know exactly what you mean," he said softly and kissed her cheek. She blushed and he held up a brightly wrapped package for her.

"Hatori, you are spoiling me, I hope you didn't go through to much trouble this time at least," she almost whispered as she took the package. It had been obvious that he had to give some serious effort for some of their dates.

"You deserve it," he said and brushed his lips against hers. "And this time it didn't take much."

"Better not have," she said with a fake glare. She tore of the paper and stared at the object in her hands. "Seriously?"

"What don't you like it?" he asked.

"I- how-," she fumbled. "When the hell did I tell you what my favorite movie is?"

"A couple months ago," he said cheerfully. "On our first date."

"I- your amazing," she whispered with a blush. She didn't even remember that, how could he?

"So why do you look so sad?" he asked stroking one finger against her cheek.

"I don't deserve you," she whispered, the words slipped out before she could stop them. Hatori chuckled and shook his head.

"Can't you see? I don't deserve you," he said.

"I guess we're both a couple undeserving fools then," she said and brought his lips to hers. "Just one question. How did you get this movie in English, when you can't read English?"

"I went back and fourth with Hatsu," he said.

"Not too much trouble huh?" She asked skeptically. He opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by shouting from the hallway, Kyo and Yuki made their way into the living room.

"Everything if your fault!" Kyo yelled. "Even the new girl said so!" he gestured to Inora and Yuki looked at her with wide questioning eyes.

"Wait, wait, wait," she said. "What exactly did I say?"

"You said that 'if it was anyone's fault it was the rat's fault,' you know, for the cat missing the banquet," Kyo explained.

"Well yes I did say that, but that doesn't make it Yuki's fault. He may be possessed by the spirit of a rat but he isn't a rat. You all are human beings with… a little problem. You are all a far cry from the animals in the story anyway," she said. "Yuki would never try to trick someone into missing something so important and Kyo, you wouldn't have believed him." There was a long pause after that until Hatori finally broke it.

"You're absolutely right," he said, he grabbed her hand and leaned over to kiss her neck. She thought he seemed to not be able to keep his hands off her… or lips.

"So did you want to watch the movie here or at your place?" she asked.

"I think we would have more privacy at my place," he whispered so only she could hear. She smiled at that and stood.

"I have to talk to Shigure first," she said then left. She made her way to his study, she couldn't help but think about all of the things she had done in there. The last time she had been in the room was when they 'broke up,' if they had even been dating.

"Shigure," she said stepping into the room.

"Well, well, this brings back memories," he said with an evil grin, apparently he had been thinking along the same lines as her.

"What was the deal you made with Akito for me?" she hadn't pestered him about it for quite a long time, but their conversation earlier had reminded her. He hadn't been expecting that so he was thrown for a second, then he seemed to be considering her.

"Well I hardly think there is anything to worry about now, so sure, I'll tell you. I promised that if you slipped up in anyway I would be her 'pet.' Meaning I would live at the estate and always be on call for… entertainment."

"Wait… her. You said 'her pet'," she said slowly. Shigure seemed to freak out for a moment, then go back to his serine calm.

"Whatever, guess it's too late now," he said putting his chin in his hand. "Yes Akito is a woman, when she was born our 'god' her mother decided to raise her as a boy. Didn't work completely," he explained.

"God?" she asked, she was starting to feel a little overwhelmed.

"Oh yes, you know the god in the story? That's her, that's why she has so much control over the Zodiac," he said.

"Why are you telling me all of this now?" she asked.

"Because I trust you," he said simply. "Oh and the 'woman' thing doesn't leave this room. Only Hatori, Aya and I know about it."

"Right," she muttered and backed out of the room. She had gotten the information she wanted, and much more. She wanted to escape before he told her something else and her head exploded. She made her way down the hallway to find Hatori waiting by the door.

"You ready?" he asked, but just as she was about to answer her phone rang. It seemed like the world didn't want her to have some alone time with Hatori.

"(Sup Dan,)" she answered into the phone after checking the caller ID.

"(You never call so I decided to call you,)" she said.

"(Can this wait I'm just ab-)" she started but he cut her off.

"(Why are you so busy all the time?)" he asked suspiciously. She was tired of making excuses to him so she decided to just get it over with.

"(Dan, I'm seeing someone,)" she said boldly.

"(It's not that Shigure guy is it?)" he asked angrily.

"(No it's-)" she started but then Dan laughed.

"(So how long have you and Hatori been dating?)" he asked.

"(How did you know?)" she asked.

"(I could tell that it wouldn't be long from the way he had been looking at you, so how long have you been lying to me?) He asked.

"(We've been dating since Christmas,)" she answered sheepishly.

"(Well just remind him of the little conversation we had before I left,)" he said.

"(What did you tell him?)" she asked.

"(Wow he didn't tell you? That's impressive. I told him that if he broke your heart I would hunt him down like a dog. I elaborated a bit more then that but that was the gist)" he explained.

"(Oh God, Dan please tell me you didn't,)" she pleaded.

"(It's my job, now go on your date. You can call me later,)" he said and hung up. She stared at the phone for a few seconds before putting it back in her pocket. Her uncle was weird.

* * *

><p>Inora had never been less interested in anything in her life. Which was odd because it was one of her all time favorite movies. How could you go wrong with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly? She only made it about thirty seconds into the awesome opening song before loosing interest. It was so fucking unfair though, how could Hatori always look so drop dead gorgeous without trying? They were on his bed, which was exciting all by its self. She felt bad because he went through a lot of trouble to find this movie in the original English version. It was really sweet because after going though all of that trouble he was still going to sit though the whole thing with her even though he wouldn't understand a word of it. It was clear he was bored too because he was staring at the wall completely spacing out. Her eyes ran over his body again. He had his right arm up using his forearm to prop his head at better angle. His left hand was resting lightly on his stomach. His left foot was dangling loosely off the bed while his right was propped up on the bed with his knee in the air at the absolute perfect angle.<p>

She propped herself up on her right elbow to get a better look at him. He came back to earth and turned his head to look into her eyes. His eyes were on fire. She couldn't help but notice how different the burning in his eyes was from Shigure's. Shigure had more of an instinctual desire while Hatori had an unyielding need. They continued to look into each others eyes; she couldn't tell who was the one leaning forward first. Their lips met and, no matter how often they had kissed, she felt her fingers tingling and butterflies in her stomach. No man had ever had that kind of effect on her before him. She thought in the beginning that it just would go away along with the excitement of having him all to herself, but both feelings were just as strong as ever and she had lost count of how many times they had been together like this.

She traced his bottom lip with her tongue, he got the idea instantly and he flicked his tongue against hers. They moved their lips faster and more feverishly. He was smart enough to stay on his back so she could press her breasts against his arm without having to worry about transforming him. Her right hand was interlaced with his left and her left hand was on his smooth neck. His right hand was at her waist, he would occasionally run it down to her hip but that was as far as it would get. She loved that he was such a gentleman usually but in situations like this she wished that he would feel her up more. She removed her hand from his neck and grabbed his; she slid it slowly down her side and across her hip. She left it on her ass and ran her hand across his waist to his back. He chuckled once and gave her ass a tentative squeeze. She squirmed against his side a little and he soon got used to the idea.

He turned to his side and she quickly snapped her hand to his chest, she wasn't about to let him transform, she wasn't done yet. She knew he didn't like the idea of having sex with her when he couldn't hold during or after, but it wasn't like the curse was going to leave anytime soon. Ever since the night after their first date he had always stopped them when he thought they were going too far with some sort of excuse, but this time it seemed like stopping hadn't even crossed his mind, and she had no intension of letting him. If he knew she was a virgin, however, she knew he would fight it even more. That's why she hadn't told him, but she wouldn't give her virginity to him without being absolutely sure he was worth it, and he was. She didn't give it to Shigure for instance.

She pressed her hips against his and wrapped her leg around his body. He surprised her by sliding his hand up the back of her shirt and undoing the clasp of her bra. She pushed on him with her hip and hand, he rolled to his back and she rolled with him so she was sitting on top of him. She straightened up looking into his eyes she began to unbutton his shirt, it fell open and she ran her hands down his chest all the way to his belt. She heard his breathing pick up, she grabbed the bottom of her shirt and in one motion the shirt and bra was flying over her head and across the room. He smiled and his eyes raked over her, she bent down and kissed him again.

He pressed against her side and they both rolled over so she was on her back and he was kneeling between her legs with his hands by her shoulders propping himself up. She reached around and squeezed his ass and she heard his sharp intake of breath. She moved her hands around to his stomach and ran them up his chest to his shoulders. She slid his shirt off of his shoulders and he straightened up to take it off the rest of the way. She ran her fingers back down his chest to his belt and undid it, then she unbuttoned and unzipped his pants, she reached out again and slid her fingers in his underwear and brushed them against his cock. She could see him holding his breath she smiled at the thought of teasing him and removed her hand. He reached down and undid her pants, but instead of teasing her back he grabbed the pants, panties and all, at her hips and began to pull them down. She thrust her hips upward so he could; he slid off the bed to pull them off her feet. She sat up and grabbed his pants and slid them down then let them drop to the floor, and then she grabbed his shoulders and pulled him towards her again.

She was quivering. She could feel it, but so was he. He began to play with her breasts while she grabbed at his ass. He brushed his fingers down her stomach, all the way down, and started rubbing her. Her breath was coming in quick shallow breaths now; she could feel herself getting wet. She reached down and began to rub his cock with long, slow, deliberate strokes. He got hard so fast, she put both of her hands on his back; it felt like he was on fire. He pulled back from her lips to look in her eyes; he removed his fingers from her and inched forward slowly.

When he slid inside her she gasped; it hurt but not as much as she had thought it would, she looked deep into his eyes and the pain disappeared. She reached out and pulled him to her lips again, they were both breathing heavily. He began to go deeper, and he moaned softly in her mouth. She sounded like she could hyperventilate at any moment; she stayed right on that line. She moaned as he kissed her breasts. Neither of them had any concept of time it was just them, nothing else mattered. Something she had never even imagined ran through her body, she took her lips off of his and let out a long moan while squirming around beneath him. While she was still trying to recover from the shock of it she noticed he wasn't in her anymore. She looked around feverishly and finally found him by the side of the bed.

"Well that interesting," she said breathlessly. "Did you know that would happen?" Of course he couldn't respond; because he was a seahorse he was the only one that couldn't talk in his zodiac form. She laughed and picked him up and laid him in the middle of the bed. She laid down next to him and waited. It didn't take that long for him to change back.

"No, I didn't. But it was…interesting," he whispered, thinking hard. He looked into her eyes, the emotion that was in them knocked the breath out of her. "I love you."

"I love you too. You have no idea," She whispered back, she didn't know when she had started loving him exactly but she knew in this moment that it was true. She pulled his lips to hers again and they shared a long sweet kiss.

(A/N): So I hope you get the meaning of the chapter title but I can explain it if you want. Hope you enjoyed this one! The end of it was my last prewritten plot point! Yup, we are getting close to the end! You excited…or sad? Lol


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen: Scars**

"Can I ask you something?" Hatori asked. They were still cuddled up in his bed completely naked under the covers. She had grabbed a wad of the comforter to shove between them so she could put her head on his shoulder while he had his arm around her, drawing patterns on her side with his fingers.

"Anything," she whispered turning on her side towards him and looking over his chest. She had always thought his chest was hard because he was so thin but he was actually pretty built, but in a subtle way.

"I noticed… early on…" he had problems finding the right words. Her stomach dropped, she had an idea where he was going with this, and she didn't want to go there right now.

"You seemed almost like you were in pain… for a moment?" he said it like a question. "It was a wince I believe." No, she didn't want to tell him. When she had decided to withhold the fact that she was a virgin from him she didn't think about having to tell him after the act. She didn't exactly lie but… he would have liked to know.

"Yeah, a bit painful for a second," she said slowly.

"Inora was that… your first time?" he asked slowly. She buried her face in his chest and squeezed her eyes shut.

"Yes," she squeaked out. She heard, and felt Hatori heave a sigh.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked, she noticed that he didn't really seem angry.

"You never asked?" she said unsure.

"You're right, I didn't," he said. "I guess I just assumed that you and Shigure…"

"Seriously? No. I never had that strong of feelings for him, I wouldn't give that up to him," She propped herself on her elbow to look into his eyes. "I didn't love him like I love you." He smiled at her but it faded as he reached over to brush his fingers along her cheek.

"I still wish I would have known, it should have been different-"

"I wouldn't change a thing about it," she said firmly.

"But I can't hold-"

"What do you call this?" she interrupted again waver her hand over them.

"Oh yeah," he said sarcastically grabbing a fistful of the comforter between them, she was thrown off, sarcasm wasn't something he did. "We are so close."

"Hatori," she tried to keep the hurt out of her voice but failed. "Do you regret it?" Shock crossed his features as he realized what she was talking about.

"God no! That was the best moment of my life, believe me," he pleaded as he turned on his side and wrapped his other arm around her. "I'm sorry, I was being stupid."

"Yeah you were," she said into his chest and laughed, then something occurred to her. "I didn't realize that the fact that I had dated Shigure bothered you."

"I never said that," he said.

"No, but it was written all over your face a minute ago," she replied.

"I suppose it bothers me, but isn't that the boyfriends job to be jealous the ex… especially when you live with him."

"Awww. That is so cute," she gushed. "But seriously you don't need to worry. I don't really know why I was with him. Every moment from, and including, the first time we…did stuff I could never figure out why. Why I felt the need to go in there in the first place. Why I was there when I knew he had no feelings for me, and I didn't have feelings for him. And why I kept going back even after I started having feelings for you. Those weren't my most self respectful couple of weeks."

"Shigure is… very good at getting what he wants. Everything he does has a purpose behind it, but what it is… I can never tell," he explained slowly. That did make her feel better, to know that he was good at manipulating people. "Despite what he says he's a good man… maybe not the best, but he cares a lot for all of you in that house."

"Now can I ask you a question?" she asked after a minute of silence. "Why do you think you transformed? I don't remember bumping into you, but I was a little…distracted at the time." He froze and blushed; it took him a moment to finally answer.

"I guess I haven't been completely honest with you either. You see I think I transformed because of the impact of the moment, all of the emotions coupled with… my orgasm. That was my first time as well," he explained. She stared at him for a moment.

"Wait what about Kana?" she asked slowly.

"I never had sex with her," he said simply, she couldn't help but feel sort of relived at that. The only person he had given himself to was her, that made her feel even better.

"Ok so if you've never had sex how did you know… you know? All the right spots…to hit?" she asked a little awkwardly.

"I'm a doctor," he said simply sounding distracted. She looked at him and saw that he was deep in thought.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked him. He thought for a second longer before answering.

"Summer," he finally said. "You're my summer." She waited a second for him to explain. "When I was younger I had to erase the memories of all of Yuki's friends when they found out about him. Akito had accused me as being 'as cold as snow.' When I met Kana I had always thought of her as the warm spring that had melted my heart, and when I lost her I froze over again. You, however, not only melted my heart but you set it on fire with a passion I have never felt before."

"I-" her voice wasn't working right. "That's…beautiful," she managed to whisper. She stretched to kiss him, it was starting to get heated again but then she heard his stomach growl. She laughed into his lips before pulling away.

"Worked up an appetite huh?" she said with a seductive wink. "I'll go make something to eat… you earned it." She watched in amusement as he blushed, then she rolled over to her other side to get out of bed.

"Inora," he said in a shocked voice that made her freeze while sitting on the edge of the bed. She wanted to slap herself when she had realized what she had done. She had turned her back to him, the back that was horribly scared from the flames that had killed her parents.

"Yeah," she said with a sigh. "I didn't come out of that accident completely unharmed. My left leg has a little nerve damage too." She turned so the outside of her left leg was facing him, and she ran one finger along a scar that was just below her knee.

"I can't believe I never noticed," he whispered.

"Well I'm usually pretty careful about showing my back to people. Actually I thought you would have seen it that time you fixed up my shoulder."

"Well I was trying to be respectful and not look at you as much as possible," he said with a slight smile. She reached out and brushed his hair away from his eye, this time he let her. She had caught glimpses of his eye before but she had never been able to really look at it like she did now. The iris was a slightly murkier green than his bright right one. He had jagged scars running all over from his eyebrow down to his cheek bone. The scars were light, not odd colors like hers were, but they were defiantly noticeable.

"See? I really do understand why you would want to cover it up," she said with a smile. She referring to the conversation they had had on the kitchen floor after she had dislocated her shoulder.

"I never doubted you," he said and kissed her forehead. She smiled at him and then slid out of bed to get dressed. She got everything on except for her shirt, which she couldn't find. She burst out in laughter; she thought that only happened in movies.

"I c-can't find my s-shirt," she said still shaking in laughter. He laughed and got up to pull some pants on, then helped her search. She was looking behind his dresser when he heard him laugh the hardest she had ever heard him laugh. It was such a wonderful sound that she just listened to it for a moment before turning to find out what was so funny. He couldn't speak, while clutching his side he pointed to the ceiling.

"Oh my God," she said before laughing almost as hard as him. Her shirt was caught on the ceiling fan. "How the hell did it get up there?" she asked as soon as she caught her breath. She jumped for it and was able to just catch her fingers on it to slide it off.

"You're really short," he teased.

"Shut up, I'm average," she said grinning while punching him lightly in the shoulder. "And you'd better be nice to me or I won't make you something to eat." He held his hands in front of him in surrender as she slid into her shirt. "Yeah that's what I thought." She gave him a fake glare before walking out into the hallway; she went down to the kitchen to heat up some leftover chicken. As soon as she stepped inside the kitchen, however, she collided with something black and gold. There was a 'poof' and there was an adorable bunny on a pile of black clothes.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry. I didn't see you," she said, picking up the bunny. "W-who are you?"

"I'm Momiji couldn't you tell?" it said in a bubbly voice. She hadn't realized that he was the bunny, though she probably should have guessed.

"Oh you are just adorable," she gushed and hugged him to her while he giggled uncontrollably. "I didn't know you were the bunny, come to think of it what is Aya?"

"Aya is the snake!" he said. He was so cute she hugged for a moment longer before setting him on the ground again. As she started to pick up his clothes she saw that it was a uniform, it looked just like the ones that Yuki and Kyo wear.

"Momiji how old are you?" she asked.

"I'm just a year younger than Yuki and the others," he said. She was shocked; she had thought he was in middle school that last time she had seen him. There was a 'poof' again and she turned her back to the boy while handing him his clothes.

"Well I'm going to make us something to eat, you want some?" she asked.

"Having dinner kinda early aren't you?" he asked.

"No, lunch…wait, what time is it?" She asked looking around for a clock.

"It's four thirty silly! How can you not know what time it is?" he giggled at her. As if to answer his question she heard Hatori from the hall.

"I couldn't find my shirt either, Somehow it got shoved way under the bed." He laughed then walked in and spotted Momiji. "Momiji I didn't know you were coming today."

"Well I called first but no one answered the phone. Now I know why," he said before bursting into laughter. Inora was busy thinking about how it could be that late already. She knew that he came over to Shigure's around 12, so they probably got here and started the movie at one. She remembered that the movie had gone all the way back to the main menu by the time they finished…that, and they only made it a minute or two into the opening theme song before…that. She knew for a fact that that movie is 2 hours and 41 minutes long. She felt a little light headed as she thought about it, if she had had to guess she would have said that they had sex for about 20 minutes. Not two hours and 40 minutes.

"Inora are you alright?" Hatori asked feeling her forehead. She forced her self to snap out of it.

"Just thinking about how amazing you are," she said and added 'in more ways than one,' in her head. "Ok so early dinner it is." She watched in amusement as Hatori looked at his watch confused, then shocked, then confused again as he tried to figure out how it had gotten so late. He seemed to finally just accept it with a shrug and went with Momiji to the dining room while she warmed up the leftovers.

As she busied herself in the kitchen her mind drifted until it landed on how dangerously close it was getting to October. Hatori hadn't talked about it for months but she saw the worry in his face anytime he looked at a calendar. In fact he had gotten his own "Worrying about Inora leaving" face. There were several thinks to worry about though, for one there was Akito. If she didn't leave at the year mark they would have to deal with the wrath of Akito finding out that Hatori had found love again. Shigure had explained to her that Akito felt that she was the only person her Zodiac should love.

There was another problem, the curse itself. While the curse still surrounded Hatori he couldn't fully be with her, his loyalties still lied with Akito and Inora knew it. Again that's why they had to be so careful around Akito; if she gave the order Hatori would have no choice but to erase Inora's memories of him. Like Kana. That brought up another point, if she left just because of all the problems they would face here she would be no better then Kana. What she really wanted, more than anything, was for Hatori to ask her to stay. She wanted it to be his choice, but she had a feeling he wanted it to be her choice.

She brought the food to the table and sat next to Hatori still lost in thought. One of them needed to step up or she would end up back on her side of the world without him. She almost cried at the thought, what would happen to them?

(A/N): OK! I believe there will be just two more chapters. I CAN DO THIS! Lol I also have a thought… but it might be super stupid. A truth or dare with all of the characters from the story? Idk let me know what you think!


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter Nineteen: Shattered**

"Happy Birthday Inora!" Shigure, Tohru, Yuki and Kyo said together as she walked into the dining room.

"Guy's, my birthday isn't until tomorrow," she said rolling her eyes.

"We know but you have plans tonight," Tohru said sweetly.

"And seeing as your plans are with Ha'ri we also knew that you wouldn't be home tonight, or probably tomorrow for that matter," Shigure said with a knowing smile.

"Shut up," Inora said turning red. She sat at the table with them wondering what they had in store for her. She should have realized that they were planning something but this was the first night in two weeks that she would see Hatori, she had been a little distracted. Neither one of them had stepped up yet and they were running out of time, it was now nearing the end of September. It was exactly one month from today that she would be leaving. She had decided that if he didn't say anything tonight then she would.

"Plus I think you'd want to open my present before you see him," Shigure said with a wink. She didn't get to ask what he meant because two people burst into the room.

"Inora!" Momiji's voice rang as he launched himself at her. She pulled the bunny into a tight hug before getting all of his clothes off of her.

"Wow, you really don't care when you transform huh?" she asked him.

"Nope! I really don't see what the big deal is," he giggled.

"Inora!" the other person said in an overly dramatic voice. "It has been far too long since I've seen you! Here is your present." Ayame was striking a pose while holding up a clothing bag.

"Brother, that had better not be what I think it is," Yuki said in a dangerous tone.

"Relax Yuki, I know what it is," she said getting up; Momiji went to the other room to change back. She unzipped the bag to see the gorgeous dress that she had worn on her first date with Hatori. She grabbed at the bottom of the dress to feel it, and she noticed something white behind it. She looked up at Ayame who winked at her; he leaned close to her ear so only she could hear him.

"I saw the look on your face when I mentioned the nurse's uniform," he whispered. She zipped the bag up and grabbed his chin; she stretched up and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Thank you," she said.

"Aww, I wanna kiss, open mine next," Shigure whined. She smiled at him and plopped down next to him as he handed her a gift bag. She opened it to find a beautiful bottle with a clear blue liquid in it. She unscrewed the lid to smell it, it smelled like the ocean.

"It smells amazing," she said and leaned over to kiss his cheek as well. "I love it, thank you."

"Oh you don't even know yet," she heard him mutter, she was about to ask what he meant when Momiji spoke up.

"Mine next, Mine next!" he was bouncing around in place. She unwrapped his present and stared at it for a few moments.

"Momiji," she whispered.

"It's a dream catcher," he explained proudly to everyone. "In her country there were 'Native Americans' that made these to catch bad dreams while you slept!" He turned and whispered so only she could hear. "I heard you that night I slept at Ha'ri's."

"Thank you," she said trying to keep back tears while giving him his kiss on the cheek. "Who's next?" she asked once she had recovered.

"Mine!" Tohru said and handed it to her. "I thought this would remind you of everyone!" Inora opened the package to find a charm bracelet with figurines of all of the Chinese Zodiac.

"Oh Tohru," Inora said and threw her arms around the girl. It actually felt nice to hug someone without having to worry. And just for the hell of it she planted a kiss on her cheek as well.

"Your fun to give present's to," Shigure said with a grin.

"Here," Kyo said holding up a package and trying to look bored. "And I don't need a kiss or anything." She smiled and took the package from him. She was instantly curious because it was soft like clothing, clothes didn't really seem like something Kyo would give as a present. She opened the paper and a lot of white cloth spilled out over her lap. There were white pants, white shirt, and even a white belt. It was a Karate uniform.

"Aww, Kyo!" she said and despite his attempts to shove her away she gave him a kiss as well.

"Yeah, you're getting pretty good," he said blushing as he wiped off his cheek. "I talked to my master and he said you could take classes from him, you know, until you leave." She wasn't stupid; she knew that everyone in that room was very much aware that there was a chance she wouldn't leave. She also knew that everyone knew for a fact that she didn't want to, and that it was all up to Hatori. Shigure seemed to be thinking the same thing.

"Inora you know none of us want you to leave right? I for one would be devastated to have you leave," he said and everyone voiced their agreement.

"I know, but it's still really nice to hear, thank you," She said looking at all of them.

"Inora, here," Yuki said holding out his gift. She unwrapped it to find a silver butterfly with red and purple stones. She must have been more obsessive over her favorite colors then she thought.

"Thank you Yuki," she said after giving him his kiss.

"This is all stuff for you to wear! I think a fashion show is in order!" Ayame sang. Yuki blushed and looked like he was going to yell at his brother but Inora stood up and bounced over to Aya.

"I think that's a wonderful idea!" she said just as loud and obnoxious as he had.

"This way!" he sang and pulled her down the hall to Shigure's study. She changed into the red and purple dress Ayame gave her first, and he helped her put on all of the jewelry she just got. When she went back out she got a lot of ooh's and ah's from everyone except for Kyo. However, when she came back in the uniform he gave her he became interested.

"No, no," he said shaking his head and standing up, he walked over to her and grabbed her belt. "Ya got this tied all wrong, ya gotta do it like this or else it will get in your way... or come undone." He finished retying her belt and stepped back to examine the rest of the outfit.

"Wow, so picky," she teased and ruffled his hair. He ducked away from her hand and slouched off to sulk in the corner. She rolled her eyes at him before going back to change again. She started giggling as she walked back to the dining room in her nurse's uniform; they had no idea that she had gotten this as well. She stepped into the dining room to a lot of blank stares.

"So, what do you think?" She asked.

"I think it's adorable!" Ayame gushed from behind her.

"Well of course you like it, you made it," he said beaming at him. She looked around again, Shigure was zoning out, and she didn't want to know what he was thinking. Yuki seemed to be warring with himself; she knew that if he complimented her he would also be complimenting his brother. Kyo was completely blank with his mouth hanging open slightly.

"It's really cute!" Tohru finally said.

"You look adorable!" Momiji sang.

"Thank you guys! I don't have time for the rest of you to make up your minds, I have to go," he said and went to change for the last time. When she went to the front door she found Shigure standing there.

"You forgot something," he said holding up the perfume. He sprayed some on her clothes then carefully lifted some of her hair and sprayed some in the middle of it. The scent washed all around her and she smiled.

"Thank you, but-" she was about to ask why when he cut her off.

"Just trust me," he winked and walked back to join the others. She wondered for another second then just shrugged.

* * *

><p>After sneaking into the estate, which was ridiculously easy for her now, she tiptoed into Hatori's house. It was dark inside and she wondered if he was still working until she heard faint music from down the hall. She grinned as she found the sound was coming from his room. There was a soft glow coming from inside that she soon figured to be candles. As she stepped through the doorway she gasped, every surface of the room was covered in candles and Rose petals. Hatori was standing in a corner of the room dressed in her favorite, black slacks and a white button down shirt, that he had untucked and halfway unbuttoned.<p>

"What do you think?" he asked quietly walking over to her.

"I think this is amazing," she said slightly breathless. He bent down and kissed her sweetly then he froze. She could hear him take a deep breath through his nose and release it with a soft moan. He wove his hand into her hair and grabbed it tightly; he pulled on it so she had to turn her head to the side. He buried his face in her hair breathing deeply.

"Hatori… are you ok?" she asked slowly.

"You smell like…the ocean," he whispered into her ear. She could feel his lips brush against her ear and his warm breath move her hair. Her knees felt week and a shiver rolled down her spine. Suddenly she remembered the perfume Shigure had taken great care to spray on her. She heard him take one more deep breath before he lost himself.

He pulled at her hair again to bring her lips back to his. His grip was tight on her hair but not painful, and it was turning her on like no other. Their breathing was uneven and coming in sharp bursts from the intensity of the kiss. They broke apart for a moment to catch their breath and Hatori must have caught the scent again. He pushed her down on the bed and quickly climbed over her. She was struck by how unlike himself he was being, not that she wasn't enjoying it immensely. She ripped open his shirt as he fumbled with the button on her pants. He was finally able to open them and send them flying across the room before he started on her shirt. She laughed as he had problems with her bra, his hands were shaking, she unhooked it and that too went flying.

This wasn't like last time; last time there was more touching and more kissing. This time there was more groping and, because they were breathing so hard, less kissing. That, however, meant that there was a lot more noise coming from the room. It was clear that he loved to hear his name moaned in his ear, and the same could defiantly be said for her.

* * *

><p>The next morning she woke up and bolted upright.<p>

"Whoa, what the hell was that?" she asked to no one. She looked around and saw Hatori in the same place he had collapsed to last night. That had been a sight, she remembered it vividly, his back had arched gracefully as he orgasmed then he simply collapsed on the bed next to her. She had forced herself to put a pillow between them before she passed out with him. She shook him awake, and he jerked upright just as she had done.

"Wha- what happened?" he muttered, she couldn't help but giggle, his hair was all over the place from him sleeping on his face.

"Shigure," she said. He looked at her like she was crazy for a second before she continued. "He gave me a perfume for my birthday that made me smell like the ocean." He looked at her for another second before he chuckled and turned bright red.

"Oh that's right, I remember now…" he looked at the floor. "Sorry that's not what I meant to happen…"

"Are you serious? That was great!" she said beaming at him, and she fell back into her pillow. She couldn't believe she was so exhausted still, and a growl came from her stomach. Hatori looked at his watch and laughed.

"We slept in quite a bit, I'll go make us some breakfast," he said climbing out of bed to get dressed. As he walked by her side of the bed to the door she reached out and caught his hand. She slid out of bed to stretch up and gave him a sweet kiss.

"I love you," she whispered into his lips.

"I love you too," she could feel him smile then he kissed her again. "And I have no idea what I would do without you." She froze, was he going to finally ask her to stay? He kissed her one last time and turned to go get breakfast. She sat on the bed again, trying to hold back her feelings of disappointment. She had to remind herself that they still had a month left, so there was still time. She slowly got dressed and just as she was sliding her shirt back on she heard a crash from the kitchen. She sprinted down the hallway to find Hatori with a broken plate at his feet. He clutched onto the counter like his life depended on it, his expression was a mix of shock and pain.

"Hatori, what is it? What's wrong?" she asked looking around the kitchen for the cause. He didn't answer her, he just started crying. She ran to his side trying desperately to figure out what had happened. She rubbed his back soothingly and ran her fingers through his hair. Slowly he turned so he was facing her; he wound his arms around her waist and pulled her to him. As her body pressed against his she squeezed her eyes shut and prepared herself to catch him before he hit the ground.

The familiar 'poof' noise never came. She wrapped her arms around him tightly and heard his breathing start to slow. Then he began to laugh, he picked her up off of the ground and spun her in a few circles before setting her back on the ground. He kissed her happily at first and then warmer, she couldn't believe how different his kisses were when she was being held to him like this.

"It's gone," he finally said. "The curse, it's gone. I'm free."

"Oh my God," she whispered and mashed herself into his chest again. "Hatori that's amazing!"

"Inora I should have asked you this months ago, will you stay in Japan with me?" he asked.

"Of course silly," she said beaming. The rest of the afternoon the phone rang off the hook, all of the other Zodiac had been freed as well. Shigure had called first to thank her.

"You see Hatori and Kyo were first, you broke Hatori free and Tohru broke Kyo free. That weakened the curse so much that the whole thing fell apart soon after. Oh there together now by the way!" he explained cheerfully.

"Well it's about time," she muttered and he laughed. "Listen I have to go, Hatori just asked me to stay so I think some celebrating is in order."

"I should say so," he said knowingly. She was just about to hang up when she thought of something.

"Oh thank you for that perfume. Best. Present. Ever." she said with a grin.

"Yes I thought you might like it, go have fun, I have something I need to take care of," he said and hung up. She hung up the phone and started laughing.

"What's so funny," Hatori asked.

"I was just thinking about fate. You remember how I got here? The people I was supposed to stay with, their house burned down. I was forced to live in the woods by myself for three weeks and got seriously sick for my trouble. If that hadn't happened I wouldn't have met the Sohma's, I wouldn't have met you. And if all of that horrible stuff hadn't happened with Kana you wouldn't be with me…"

"I know exactly what you mean," he said pulling her close to him and kissing her sweetly. "Bad things happen for a reason."

(A/N): OMG wooooo! THEY'RE FREEEEE! Hope you like how I made that happen! OH and I just thought of the perfume thing last night, thought it was kinda funny. Sooo there is just an epilogue type thing coming up!


	20. Chapter 20

**Epilogue**

"Hatori stop messing with your tie, you're going to choke yourself," Shigure teased. "You look great, Aya dressed you after all."

"I'm just so nervous," Hatori said. "God, I can't believe I'm here. Hell, I'm still surprised I got her uncles approval."

"Well we're all amazed at that," Shigure said laughing.

"Ha'ri," Ayame whined from behind Shigure. "Stop messing with it, I just got it perfect."

"Ha'ri you look great, don't worry!" Momiji sang from behind Ayame.

"Thank you," Hatori said looking at the three of them. "And thank you for being here with me."

"Are you kidding? I wouldn't miss this for the world," Shigure said.

"Wild horses couldn't drag me from this spot," Ayame said dramatically.

"I'm happy for you, and I'm happy you asked me!" Momiji said beaming at Hatori. The music suddenly changed to more of a fanfare and the doors opened at the back of the church they were standing in. Kyo came in first looking awkward in his suit as he walked up to the alter directly across from Hatori. Yuki came in next, he held himself much better than Kyo had, and he walked over to stand behind Kyo. Last was Tohru, who was wearing a cute pink frilly dress, she stood behind Yuki. Kyo had a hard time taking his eyes off Tohru to face the way he was supposed to.

Everyone sitting in the pews stood and waited for the bride. Inora walked into view and there was the stereotypical intake of air from the audience. Her dress was amazing, but of course Ayame had made it; it was so expertly cut and made her look even more graceful than she was already. It flowed all the way to the ground and flared out, but not so much that she looked like a poof ball. The dress was completed with a tiara holding the veil in place, but she didn't have the veil in front of her face, she chose to have it trail down her back. She walked slowly down the aisle gripping her uncle's, Dan's, arm tightly. She stopped at the end of the aisle for a second to give Hatsu, who was sitting right up front, a hug before walking the rest of the way to Hatori. She had briefly considered having Hatsu walk her down the aisle and making Dan a groomsman.

"You look beautiful," Hatori whispered.

"You're not so bad yourself," she whispered back, grinning. Dan grabbed her hand and Hatori's hand and waited for his queue. She had helped him memorize the words because the service was in Japanese. She only got away with this because the whole wedding was being recorded and she promised to translate it for him.

"Who gives this woman to be married to this man?" The pastor asked and Inora Nodded to Dan.

"I do," he said with a strong American accent. He placed Inora's hand in Hatori's and went to take his seat after hugging her briefly. The pastor droned on but neither one of the really listened to him.

"Now the bride and groom have prepared their own vows which they will recite now. Hatori," the pastor prompted.

"Inora, you are my summer, you melted my heart when I thought it was permanently frozen. You light up my world when I thought I would be confined in darkness for the rest of my life. You are my everything, I love you and I can't imagine my life without you." Inora took a deep breath to steady her self before starting.

"Hatori, you are my life. Fate has brought us together. I was always meant to be with you and I will never leave your side. You have accepted me and all of my flaws like I thought no one could. I love you and my life would be nothing with out you."

"Present the rings," the pastor prompted. Hatori got the ring from Shigure and grabbed Inora's shaking hand.

"With this ring, I do thee wed," he said almost proudly while sliding the ring on her finger. She turned and got the ring from Kyo who saw how nervous she was. As he placed the ring in her palm he grabbed her hand and held it tightly for a moment smiling warmly at her. He had no idea what that meant to her, she turned back to Hatori slightly steadier.

"With this ring, I do thee wed," she said, her voice shaking slightly.

"I now pronounce you man and wife, you may kiss the bride," The pastor said sounding like it was the best part of his job. Hatori leaned over and pressed his lips to hers with so much emotion she was breathless by the time he pulled away. They turned and smiled at their family and friends who were cheering and clapping. The whole thing was a blur; they rushed down the aisle and straight to a limo that would take them to the Sohma estate. Akito had insisted that they have their reception there. Inora knew that she was trying desperately to make up for the past, and she had gotten better.

They just barely had time to take in all of the decorations in the giant room before everyone that had been at the wedding stood up and cheered for them. They had the limo driver drive aimlessly for a time to give everyone a chance to get there. Needless to say they had the black window up between them and the driver. Her entire side of the family seemed to rush at them, and Hatori was at a loss for words. She had told him that she needed to invite quite a few people but he had thought that might mean ten. Altogether there was more than twenty.

"Hatori this is my uncle….these are my cousins….this is my dad's cousin…" she introduced all of them to his blank stares. When they finally all settled down and went to find seats he finally broke.

"You know I really thought your family was just Dan. I had no idea that so many people in your family would come all the way to Japan," he muttered to her.

"Yeah… I'm surprised to see some of those people here. But Dad's side of the family has always been close. I sent most of those invitations so they wouldn't feel bad for not being invited, maybe they all just needed an excuse to come to Japan," she muttered back as Hatori's family walked calmly over to them.

It looked like they were trying to prove a point to her family. He introduced each person to her formally. She was surprised when she received some emotional hugs from people she had never met. He introduced them again later and she found out they were the members of the Zodiac she hadn't met. One girl he had to restrain from breaking her back in a bear hug, her name was Kagura, she had been the boar. Another girl glared at her coldly as she was being introduced, then one tear slid down her cheek and finally threw her arms around Inora.

"Sorry about that," a white haired boy said after the girl ran away.

"Haru," Inora said. "Long time no see! So you're friends with her?"

"That was Rin, we're dating, she's been trying to break the curse for a long time," he explained sounding bored then he stepped up to give Inora a hug. "Thank you, now I can finally say out loud that she's mine," he whispered in her ear before pulling away and walking off. Hatori explained that Rin had been the Horse and that Haru had been the Ox.

To their relief, Hatori and Inora were finally able to take their seats at the head table with the rest of the wedding party. She sat down next to Kyo who patted her shoulder as she heaved a big sigh. She remembered what he had done for her in the service and threw her arms around his neck.

"Talking to all those people must have sucked huh?" he asked patting her back awkwardly.

"You have no idea," she whined into his shoulder. "Thank you for earlier by the way, you know, in the service. I really needed that."

"No problem," he said and wound his arms tighter around her.

"Hey, take your hands off my wife," Hatori said faking anger. Inora let go of Kyo's neck and turned to Hatori, her face positively glowing.

"Sorry _husband_," she said and kissed him sweetly. The entire hall talked cheerfully as they ate, Inora's nerves spiked again as their cake was brought out. Shigure had convinced them that since they were having an American stile wedding then they had to do all of the stupid traditions that went a long with it. Inora grabbed the knife and Hatori put his hands over hers to cut the cake together. He fed her piece to her carefully while she, on the other hand, shoved his too big piece into his mouth. After he cleaned himself off all of the single women assembled to try to catch the bouquet. Everyone laughed at Tohru's blush as she stood holding the flowers, even she couldn't believe she caught it without tripping.

Inora turned beat red as Shigure brought over a chair for her to sit in. She sat down nervously and Hatori came to kneel in front of her, he was blushing as well. He took a deep breath before lifting up the skirts of her dress and ducking his head under them. She laughed hysterically as she felt him searching around for her guarder; he finally found it and removed it from her leg with his teeth. He shot it into the crowd of single guys and Kyo caught it reflexively as it almost hit his face. Everyone that knew Kyo, Tohru and the tradition started laughing. Shigure finally explained it to them and they both tuned a deeper shade of red. As the cake was being passed out Shigure stood up to fulfill the tradition Hatori and Inora had insisted on, the best man speech.

"Inora and Hatori, anyone who has met you for more than a minute knows that you belong together. I, however, was in the unique position to see your entire relationship play out. I just have one question, what took you so long?" he asked to a lot of laughter, followed by another round of laughter as Inora's family had it translated to them. "You knew each other for almost two months before you started dating. I got to watch as they did their 'they don't like me, how could they?' routine and, believe me, it drove me up the wall."

"I think the whole house was relieved when you two started dating. But you taught others not to be scared of their feelings," here he looked at Kyo and Tohru, everyone but the Zodiac members looked a little confused. "Anyway what I'm saying is that there isn't a doubt in anyone's mind that you two will be together for the rest of your lives. I don't need to wish you a happy marriage because you belong together. So here is to the _already_ happy couple," he finished with a grin and drained his Champaign in one gulp. The whole hall toasted with him and as soon as the noise died away the DJ started the music.

Hatori rose and took Inora's hand to lead her to the dance floor. They took their places right in the middle and the DJ put on the song they had chosen. It was 'Your Song' by Elton John. They held each other closely as they revolved slowly around the dance floor. Inora barely registered the cameras flashing all around them; she was locked onto Hatori's eyes.

"I love you so much," she whispered.

"I never thought I could be this happy," he whispered back. "I owe you everything. 'Love' isn't enough to describe how I feel about you." They shared a passionate kiss that was seemed to be the beginning of their new life together.

_**The end**_

(A/N):

Chapter:

Haha so I had a lot of issues with their vows! Seriously, it took me about an hour to be finally satisfied with them. Also had issues with the ending, couldn't figure out the best way to leave it… I also tried to make Hatori a little…less stiff? If you know what I mean. Hope it was good!

Whole Story:

Nooo, it's over. Awww I think I might cry. Anyway thanks to all who supported me with your reviews. _Cough_ (LyssaLoo62) _Cough._ ;) Your da bomb! AND I thought y'all should know that this was my first story…ever. Haven't written a thing besides stuff for school. Sooo yeah, lots of mistakes.

I got asked if there would be a sequel. Bet you can guess who that was…LyssaLoo62. I honestly have no idea what it would be about… but if anyone had an idea of what they would like to read about. OR if there was a scene that I left out in this story that you might want to read I might be persuaded to write it. Lol

Other:

I think I'm gonna start another story. A Narnia/Legend of Zelda crossover actually. So if you like those… watch for it? Lol


	21. Chapter 21

(A/N): Hey! I saw that a lot of people put this story on alert so I figured that I should tell y'all that the sequel is out! Whooo! It's called "Bad Things Part 2" it was like 6am when I finally posted it so I honestly couldn't come up with a better title. I've already been told that that one is written better so I hope you like it! And btw thanks for reading this one ;)


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